Thursday, December 14, 2006

Undocumented Polish? Congrats! You're The Next BushCo INS Target!


I'm sure that's the BushCo INS plan! After all, an illegal alien is an illegal alien! By the way, that was...



But, if your name is Maria and you've overindulged yourself at the local tanning salon... and you don't happen to have proof you were born and raised in the good old US of A when a thousand armed La Migra agents pay your workplace a visit, it sucks to be you.

Federal raid puts families in limbo
Immigration agents looking for stolen IDs detain scores in Hyrum
By Jennifer Sanchez, Dawn House and Kristen Moulton

HYRUM - If only for a few minutes, Maria felt like an ''illegal alien'' in her homeland - the United States of America.

She thought she was going on break from her job at the Swift & Co. meat processing plant here on Tuesday, but instead she and others were forced to stand in a line by U.S. immigration agents. Non-Latinos and people with lighter skin were plucked out of line and given blue bracelets.

The rest, mostly Latinos with brown skin, waited until they were ''cleared'' or arrested by ''la migra,'' the popular name in Spanish for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), employees said.

''I was in the line because of the color of my skin,'' she said, her voice shaking.

''They're discriminating against me. I'm from the United States, and I didn't even get a blue bracelet.''

Maria was one of hundreds of plant employees targeted by federal agents. But she and her husband were the lucky ones - later Tuesday, they returned home to their three sons.

The federal agents raided the Swift & Co. meat processing plant early Tuesday morning after arrest warrants had been issued for 60 workers, part of "Operation Wagon Train," a nationwide investigation involving undocumented immigrants using stolen Social Security numbers of U.S. citizens to gain employment.

Welcome to Bushland, Maria.

Enjoy your stay! And don't forget to keep your citizenship papers up to date!

However, if your skin were just lighter ...

"People in illegal status sometimes exploit Mexican workers and other workers because there's always the threat of exposure hanging over a person," Lorys said. "So that's why I think they're sympathetic, because when we're talking about illegal [immigrants], I think [Poles] are the second largest group to the Hispanic group."

Lorys said the majority of undocumented Polish immigrants in the United States come legally, but don't return to Poland when their visas have expired. Others fly from Cuba to Mexico and cross the border in the same manner as many undocumented Mexican immigrants.

You're no Meyer Lansky, Maria. No blue bracelet for you!

Truly heavy sigh.

Best bar bet in the world: Delilah didn't do it.
Judges 16:19--

1 Comments:

Blogger Granny said...

I've read only one article (other than yours( so far. I wonder if any citations were issued to Swift or if INS was too busy terrorizing families and tearing children (around 100 I think) from their parents.

12:48 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home