Don’t forget the employer’s responsibility when you hear about an ICE raid

From April 28, 2008

The Kansas City Star editorial board also issued another opinion piece today questioning how the President continues to waste opportunities to enact immigration reform.

The thing that caught my eye, though, was the part about Pilgrim’s Pride offering up undocumented workers for arrest so as to escape being fined by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I’m glad someone finally said it. I met a man years ago who told me of coming to work in a small town in Oklahoma at a food processing plant. He got there because a bus picked him up near the Mexican border and brought him to the small Oklahoma town. It often takes two and often three to tango in cases such as where a company just happens to employ many undocumented workers. It takes the undocumented worker. It takes the company. And, it also takes the person who provided the false work documents to the undocumented worker. Many times people will sell their own Social Security number as well as other indentifying information to enable an undocumented worker to get on a company’s payroll.