It is ironic with less than a week for the election, I am proven correct again. According to the Los Angeles Times, ICE once again mistakenly detained a US citizen. Guillermo Olivares Romero, 25, was held in a detention center for two weeks.

Federal authorities have released a Los Angeles man from immigration detention after acknowledging that he is a U.S. citizen.

Guillermo Olivares Romero, 25, was held at an Otay Mesa detention center from Sept. 25 until Oct. 9, when an American Civil Liberties Union attorney presented his birth certificate, school and vaccination records to immigration authorities. He was released that day.

In an interview with HOY (h/t to el profe of Latino Like Me), Olivares said “No me creyeron. … Me decían que yo era mexicano porque me parecía a los mexicanos.” (They didn’t believe me. They told me I was a Mexican because I looked like a Mexican.)

If it wasn’t for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Olivares would probably have spent more than two weeks detained in the privately run Corrections Corporation of America’s Otay Mesa detention center. Olivares was only released after ACLU provided ICE with his birth certificate, vaccination and health records, and old school records.

Olivares first run in with immigration officials was in 2000 when Border Patrol accused Olivares trying to sneak his cousin across the border. It was not until his mother came down with his birth certificate, Olivares was allowed to cross.

Later in 2007, unbeknownst to him, Olivares did not realize he was being deported when he was serving time in a state prison awaiting his deportation. It was not until he was handed over to ICE. Immigration officials told Olivares he has signed a document acknowledging he was a Mexican National, even though he insisted he was not. The document in question is ICE’s voluntary departure order.

One of the most commonly heard complaints are the tactics used by ICE to pressure detainees to sign papers, whether they understood them or not. If they refuse to sign, guards tend to exert psychological pressure with verbal threats and physical intimidation. If ICE is claiming Olivares signed this form and was suddenly surprised he was being deported, it sounds like what he experienced the same treatment many undocumented immigrants have reported..

Olivares decided to live with relatives in Jalisco but when he wanted to return because his father was ill, he was denied entrance. Desperate to see his father, he crossed illegally and was caught and deported the same day that his father died. When his mother tried to help him get in legally, Border Patrol, did not believe he was a UC citizen, and that she was his mother.

When Olivares and his mother tried again last month, ICE once again tried to force him to sign “deportation papers.” However, this time he refused and demanded to see a judge. It was at this time; ICE arrested him and shipped him off to the detention center near San Diego.

As usual, ICE does not think they did anything wrong because he told ICE he is a Mexican. According to Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for ICE claims Olivares said he was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and that his criminal record from the California Department of Corrections also shows that he was born in Mexico.

This is not the first time ICE deported a US born Latino. Last year, ICE detained and deported Pedro Guzman, a mentally disabled man, to Mexico, where he spent 89 days alone in an unfamiliar place. Again, ICE also said Guzman had falsely contended that he was Mexican.

While ICE can provide evidence to show that Guillermo Olivares Romero and Pedro Guzman contended they were Mexican citizens, however, there are certain incidents they cannot spin. There is mounting evidence demonstrating ICE has a pattern of targeting people based on a person’s skin color or a person’s Spanish surname, such as the incident with Marie Justeen Mancha, a Mexican-American US, citizen who was home alone in Southeast Georgia when four federal agents stormed into her house, shouting “police! Illegals!”

The unfolding record of ICE’s deportation protocol is further evidence that comprehensive immigration reform must be made top priority during the next Administration. It is also vitally important for the next president and the new Homeland Secretary to investigate of the inhumane tactics practiced by ICE. There is a human tragedy in people who are wrongfully deported and detained. However, it is a greater tragedy when racial stereotypes have influenced ICE’s perception with the idea that all Latinos/as can be considered an immigrant.

Mano dura con inmigrantes: la historia se vuelve a repetir
Edmundo Rocha

A los partidarios de “sólo aplicación de la ley” (Enforcement Only) les encantaría tener un futuro en el que los 12 millones de inmigrantes indocumentados en los EEUU sean expulsados, ya sea utilizando medios coercitivos o voluntarios.

En un clima de miedo y actitud defensiva, existe una necesidad psicológica de acusar y pelear en contra del enemigo percibido. No es la primera ocasión en la que el miedo haya desatado la adopción de fuertes políticas de inmigración. Por ejemplo, la inseguridad, el racismo y la xenofobia, fueron las razones que contribuyeron a las infames leyes excluyentes de inmigrantes chinos en los EEUU a finales de los 1800s.

La invisibilidad en general de los abusos a los derechos civiles de los latinos/as durante el siglo pasado, ha dejado a la mayoría de los estadounidenses sin darse cuenta de los retiros forzados de dos millones de personas de este país durante la Gran Depresión. Los años 30s marcaron la primera ocasión en la historia de inmigración internacional entre los EEUU y otros paises, cuyos gobiernos federales patrocinaron y apoyabaron la deportación masiva de inmigrantes.

Desafortunadamente, a través de la historia estadounidense, cuando las medidas ásperas son adoptadas en nombre de la seguridad nacional, comúnmente son dirigidas hacia etnias/razas minoritarias poco populares. Es fácil ver el paralelo entre la repatriación de los años 30s con las medidas tomadas por el gobierno estadounidense después del 11 de septiembre, 2001. Las políticas aprobadas después de sept. 11 han comprobado ser nada diferentes.

Historia de Exclusión
A pesar de ser reconocida como una “nación de inmigrantes”, este país cuenta con un largo historial de inclusión y exclusión selectivas, y de maltrato a otros. Durante los tiempos de exclusión y deportación, este país es también una “nación guardián”, una que ha establecido rígidas políticas de inmigración para controlarla y excluir a ciertos grupos de inmigrantes, comúnmente basadas en razas o etnias. El perfil racial es la herramienta que los estadounidenses utilizan cuando los grupos inmigrantes son percibidos como amenaza al status quo.

Mientras la mayor parte de las comparaciones históricas concernientes a la inmigración y raza antes y después de sept. 11 se centran en la encarcelación de japoneses-americanos, en la cual fueron encarcelados más de 120,000 hombres, mujeres, personas de edad avanzada, y niños de ascendencia japonesa en campos de concentración, la relevancia de la repatriación mexicana también debería ser incluida.

El concepto de un plan de trabajo temporal en este país no es nada nuevo. Entre 1917 y 1921, más de 72,000 trabajadores mexicanos temporales participaron en el plan de trabajadores migrantes del Departamento de Trabajo de los EEUU. Sin embargo, en 1924, el gobierno discontinuó dicho programa y creó la patrulla fronteriza del país, removiendo a todos los no ciudadanos de forma ilegal.

Para 1931, los argumentos de estilo racistas eran empleados y era tiempo de que los mexicanos se retiraran.

Durante la repatriación mexicana de los años 30s, aproximadamente el 60 por ciento de las personas deportadas eran ciudadanos estadounidenses, incluyendo a niños nacidos en tierras estadounidenses.

Se estima que una o dos millones de personas fueron deportadas del país. Autoridades tanto locales como federales no consideraron los derechos de los numerosos ciudadanos los cuales fueron deportados.

La campaña de deportación de los años 30s es parte de la larga historia de políticas de inmigración de “solo aplicación”. Durante la Operación Espaldas-Mojadas, otra campaña de deportación masiva, más de un millón de inmigrantes mexicanos, así como ciudadanos estadounidenses de ascendencia mexicana y sin duda otros latinos/as, fueron deportados. La legislación de inmigración de 1996 resultó en un aumento en la aplicación de patrullaje fronterizo, el cual ha provocado cientos, tal vez miles, de muertes en la frontera y un aumento dramático en las deportaciones.

Post Sept. 11
El actual fervor anti-inmigrante es espeluznantemente reminiscente a los sentimientos anti-mexicanos de los años 30s. A pesar de que la discriminación racial no se limita claramente a los escenarios de inmigración, si tiene un profundo impacto sobre inmigrantes legales e indocumentados, así como sobre ciudadanos debido a su aspecto o manera de hablar, como si fueran extranjeros.

El estereotipo de latino-foráneo es particularmente problemático cuando esta percepción se desliza hacia el estereotipo de latino-inmigrante-ilegal. Esta visión tiende a asociar a cualquier persona con piel morena con acento español al hablar inglés como inmigrante indocumentado. Los reportes del FBI sobre crímenes motivados por odio a partir del 2001, indican que tales crímenes en contra de latinas/os aumentaron del 2003 al 2006.

Como nación, debemos ser cuidadosos en tiempos de estrés severo nacional, y no repetir los pecados del pasado. El exámen verdadero del progreso humano es sobre si tenemos la sabiduría de ver nuestros errores y la fuerza de reconocerlos. Hasta no admitir esto, tal vez las discusiones legítimas concernientes a la seguridad y crecimiento económico nos llevarán a un enfoque honesto hacia una reforma de inmigración.

Here are the highlights from the Houston Chronicle:

Of the detained workers, 60-70 percent are women, Rutt said.

ICE officials have released 16 employees so far. “One was a U.S. citizen and another 15 were here in status and are legally authorized to work,” Rutt said.

Ten female workers who are pregnant were detained. “We are processing them here for humanitarian purposes and will release them here under an order to report to an immigration court,” Rutt said.

He said that four employees were transported from the facility for medical treatment, including a woman transported by helicopter to a local hospital after she fell 20 feet off a stack of wooden pallets in which she was hiding.

I will update this post when I hear more.

Update: I have not found out any additional information, however, I am not the only on frustrated at the lack of response here in Houston. Thanks to the folks who run Houston Indy Media, I just found out there will be a protest today to respond to the raid. After the protest, there will be a power analysis on immigration in Houston. Following this, there will be meeting to form a rapid response team in case of another raid. I plan to attend both the protest and the meetings and I will definitely my presence known.

Mira gente, I don’t have to tell you how bad things are today. Everybody knows things are bad. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s work, multinational corporations are bleeding us dry, and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV’s while some local newscaster numbs us with unless news coupled with how bad things are, as if that’s the way it’s always been. Did we really need to know that Houston was rated as 7th-sweatiest American city. We are constantly reminded we live in a very hot city every damn day when we step outside our homes. Why did my local news feel the need to remind us again that Houston is hot? Are they in the business of providing free advertising to the mega corporation who conducted this survey? I guess it is to soften the blow when they report on know things are bad – worse than bad. Well, I am tired of this. I am tired of people pinning their hopes on this election. I am tired of feeling angry. I am tired of people thinking that the “don’t worry be happy” mentality will easier to digest. NO! DAMN IT! Things have got to change. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad to make it happen!

I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!

In a massive, coordinated effort, more than 100 agents from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) descended on AgriProcessors Inc., the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the country, in Postville, Iowa. The raid is considered to be one of the largest government dragnets against immigrant workers, in Iowa’s history, according to Matt Dummermuth, US attorney for the Northern District. In a press release, Dummermuth also said the raid, which 16 local, state and federal agencies, had been planned for months.

“This is not the first time this office has been a part of a criminal worksite enforcement operation,” said Dummermuth. “However, this is the largest operation of its type ever in Iowa. Agents and officers from federal, state, and local agencies are involved today. The coordination and logistical planning efforts have been going on for months.”

Authorities said that 390 people had been arrested. Most of those arrested were either from Mexico or Guatemala, while some others were immigrants from Israel and Ukraine. Federal officials are charging for using fraudulent Social Security numbers or with the civil offense of using fraudulent Green Cards and other government documents.

Recounting of the terrifying event that took place at AgriProcessors, Humberto Nava told Michael Barnes of the Cedar Rapids Gazette, federal agents were not shy at subjecting AgriProcessors’ workers to a barrage of racial epithets. As the raid began, workers throughout the plant tried to hide or run away. Nava overheard an ICE agent shouting, “Don’t run because we are going to hunt you like rats!” In addition to using racial epithets and expletives, other federal agents called them “burros,” a crude word in Spanish for ignorant.

Many were forced to call their family to come to the slaughterhouse with documents, if there were to be released from ICE custody. Violeta Aleman, a naturalized citizen, said ICE had herded the workers like cattle into the cafeteria and ordered them to form two lines. “One for US citizens and one for legal residents,” while the undocumented immigrants were to remain seated, she told The Gazette.

In an act that would make IA Congressman Steve King (R-5) proud, ICE rounded up the detained immigrants like livestock, where they were frisked, shackled at the waist and ankles and herded onto Homeland Security buses with covered windows. They then bused to the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds in Waterloo, IA for “processing” As a result of the large number of immigrants detained; ICE used the fairgrounds as a makeshift processing and detention center.

According to The Des Moines Register, ICE arrested 314 men and 76 women. The detainees included 290 who claimed to be Guatemalans, 93 Mexicans, 3 Israelis and 4 Ukrainians. Among the detainees, 12 were juveniles, which six were later released by ICE. During the night, ICE separated by gender. The women were taken to the Hardin County Jail in Eldora for the night, while, the men “slept on cots” in a makeshift detention camp in McElroy Auditorium at the fairgrounds.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported that ICE released 62 people based on “humanitarian grounds” and 21 under ICE supervision. Humanitarian for ICE means the mothers should start making arrangements for the care of their children while they are in the process of being deported. It is really hard to believe ICE is suddenly concerned about splitting families, since they have never shown that much compassion in these situations. If this was the case then why did ICE deport Elvira Arellano? Nevertheless, buried within the article, of the 62 ICE released on humanitarian grounds, 18 were juveniles, ranging from 13 to 17. They were released either to an adult or to the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

It was unclear, however, whether ICE will strike again. The search warrants accounted for the arrest of 697 individuals; however, ICE arrested only 390. Subtract the 56 from the 390; there are 334 in the “processed” of being deported. On Tuesday, May 13, ICE said they have been issued more than 300 arrest warrants. The question that has not been answered, what methods ICE will use to execute these warrants.

Although the plant reopened on May 13, the raids had a devastating effect on the town of Postville. According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Postville schools Superintendent Dave Strudthoff said 90 percent of the Latinos at Postville High School did not attend class the next day and one-third of the Latino children from kindergarten through eighth grade were not in class.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of the workers on Thursday, accusing the government of violating their constitutional rights through arbitrary and indefinite detention.

Lead Up to the Raids
The raid came after a six-month investigation conducted by ICE along with more than a dozen federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, and the departments of labor and agriculture. In the affidavit filed as part of the 60-page application for a search warrant (pdf file), additional details by federal agents reveal a laundry list of allegations against the company’s owners and supervisors. According to the application, company owners and supervisors physically and verbally abused and exploited workers; knowingly hired juveniles and workers without legal documentation; altered work records; paid some off the books; and paid them $5 and $6 an hour, below Iowa’s $7.25 minimum wage.

The affidavit also cited other unnamed sources. One of the sources, Source #7, alleged that a “local government official” known as “Mr. Boss” was responsible for issuing the undocumented workers their paychecks. It was later revealed that “Mr. Boss” also owned one of apartment complexes where many of AgriProcessors’ workers lived. After complaining about the Source’s rent suddenly increasing, they were told by other local Hispanics “it was a common practice for the landlords who rented to tenants in that area to frequently increase rents.” According to an affidavit, ICE Special Agents discovered that an employee for the local elementary school was another AgriProcessors’ point person for paying undocumented workers under the table

In February, Source #7 told ICE agents he or she observed several “oral altercations” between a “Rabbi” and the employees. In one particular incident, a “Rabbi” had called the “employees derogatory names and [threw] meat at [the] employees.” In another incident, a Jewish floor supervisor duct-taped the eyes of alleged “undocumented” Guatemalan worker shut and hit the Guatemalan with a meat hook, apparently not causing serious injuries. The Guatemalan did not want to report the incident because “it would not do any good and could jeopardize his job.” The company fired illegal immigrants on occasion with no explanation.

According to a report by the Jewish Telegraph Agency, the search warrant states ICE agents interviewed a former plant supervisor, Source #1, who told them that they had found a “methamphetamine lab” on AgriProcessors premises. However, news about the drug lab allegation remains sketchy and usually buried by the mainstream media, except on Jewish news sources. When it is mention, the allegation is not reported correctly; it is reported that “some employees” were running the lab – giving the impression that it was the undocumented immigrants were operating the meth lab.

The affidavit only states that former plant supervisor told ICE that they had found a “methamphetamine lab” on the premises. After the supervisor “partially destroyed the lab,” the supervisor confronted a higher-level manager about the drugs and got into an altercation. The former supervisor believes this was the reason the Source was terminated from their job.

Source #1 stated there was an incident at Agriprocessors where Source #1 discovered active drug (methamphetamine) production in the the plant. Source #1 stated the methamphetamine lab was partially destroyed by Source #1. This led to a physical confrontation with Source #1’s immediate supervisor. Source #1 believes the incident led to Source #1’s termination. Source #1 stated there were incidents of weapons being carried in Agriprocessors. However, the Source was not sure if they were being traded for drugs or being sold.

In a recent interview with the Iowa City Press-Citizen, Stephen Bloom, a University of Iowa journalism professor, gave a historic perspective on the recent immigration raid in Postville. In 2000, Bloom wrote a book, “Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America,” on the clash of cultures in Postville as Agriprocessors’ Lubavitch Jewish leaders gained influence in the mostly Lutheran town. In the interview, Bloom stated that as far back in the “late 1990s,” he discovered that “guns [were] being bought and sold on the kill floor” at AgriProcessors and that “drugs were not uncommon, either.”

Most disturbing, three undocumented workers were arrested in 2006 concerning an investigation of the production of a “potential explosive device” found in a vehicle registered to an AgriProcessors supervisor. When officers attempted to question the three suspects about the explosive device, the supervisor instructed the employees to provide the officer with a false name of the person who “sold them the car.”

It is unclear if AgriProcessors is being investigated for operating a meth lab or any of the illegal activity that occurred in the plant. The question was the mentioning of the meth lab explosive devices just a ploy so ICE could conduct a raid. Or was the raid a diversion tactic to something bigger?

AgriProcessors, a Culture of Corruption
So far, no officials at AgriProcessors have been charged. Like other well publicized recent immigration raids in the US, as more become known about the incident, the identification of the plant’s owners become progressively less certain. And therein lies a tale.

AgriProcessors is a family owned and operated plant, opened in Postville in 1987, when Aaron Rubashkin, a Lubavitcher Hasidic butcher from Brooklyn, bought the former HyGrade meat processing plant in Postville. Aaron is considered to be an innovator in the glatt-kosher meat processing industry. It is now run by his sons Sholom and Heshy Rubashkin. It produces kosher and non-kosher beef, veal, lamb, turkey, and chicken products under brands such as Iowa Best Beef, Aaron’s Best and Rubashkin’s.

This is not the first time AgriProcessors has gotten in trouble the government. The company has a long history of citations and fines for violating federal, state and local regulations related to labor, food safety and the environmental.

Environmental Degradation
In 2004, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined a civil suit against AgriProcessors alleging it had violated the Clean Water Act by exceeding its wastewater limits into the city’s water treatment system. By exceeding its wastewater limits, AgriProcessors forcing the city to violate its wastewater treatment permit by discharging more than allowable pollutants from its lagoon treatment system into the Yellow River. In 2006, AgriProcessors agreed to pay over $600,000 to settle a complaint by the EPA. Before that, in 2001, Postville filed a lawsuit against AgriProcessors to recover $2 million that the plant owed in unpaid wastewater-related fines, penalties, and user fees.

Food Safety
In the same year, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) made secret videotapes documenting the company’s slaughtering practices. In the video, cattle, chickens, and turkeys are shown writhing and still being fully conscious while having their throats cut and being dismembered. Excerpts from the investigators notes:

Many cows were still alive and conscious when they came out of the tube and were slammed onto the floor. Their heads often hit the concrete with a sickening crack. I watched as one cow landed on his feet and started scrambling around with a shocked look on his face. The workers simply jumped behind their barricade and waited for him to collapse.

Some birds fell after being placed into buckets—these birds flopped around on the ground violently, and once stopped, they were thrown into the garbage.

The first time I saw a cow stagger to his feet and walk around with his trachea dangling outside of his body, I thought to myself, this can’t be happening—but after several days I knew better

PETA’s short video

The videos prompted an investigation by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), issued a “letter of warning” to the plant for violating the provisions of the Humane Slaughter Act. The USDA did not pursue criminal charges. The firestorm from the video also led to three US Department of Agriculture inspectors being reprimanded for failing to report food safety hazards, accepting gifts from plant workers and spending time playing computer games and sleeping on the job.

Between January 1, 2006, and January 24, 2007, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service issued more than 250 noncompliance requests to AgriProcessors. Inspectors found that about half the chickens being processed were contaminated with feces and bile. After making note of the violation, inspectors continue to notice that the chickens were still contaminated with feces. Inspectors noticed that two pallets of beef that had “a rancid smell and [were] slimy to the touch” and that hydraulic oil from an overhead motor was dripping on processed chickens.

In 2007, PETA documented that workers at AgriProcessors’ smaller plant – Local Pride in Nebraska – were mutilating conscious cows’ ears, jabbing hooks into their necks, and allowing the animals to remain conscious for many minutes after cutting their throats.

In the new video, the cattle appear be moving their eyes, necks and tongues long after their throats have been slit. In one case, PETA says the movement went on for two minutes. In testimony gathered by PETA, a number of veterinarians hold that cows are still conscious until their eyes roll back. Lewin said that “after [kosher slaughter,] animals may move, but when an animal moves that does not mean it is conscious.”

Since going public, PETA has received countless letters of support from concerned people calling for quick action to stop the cruelty at AgriProcessors.

Worker Safety
To meet production goals, the processing lines in this plant move exceedingly fast. Workers are under extreme pressure to keep up, and some have reported being verbally abused if they fall behind. Others try to keep up to the best of their abilities, but very few work in this plant for more than a couple of months without suffering an injury of one type or another.

Between April 2001 to February 2006, Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) records show no less than 20 violations at AgriProcessors, according to testimony given before the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety. Of these, twelve were identified by OSHA as serious.

An examination of the plant’s OSHA workplace injury logs, it reveals that there have been over five amputations from 2001-2005, two of them occurring in 2005. The logs also reveal other serious injuries have occurred at the plant, such as broken bones, eye injuries and hearing loss.

In another video released by PETA, the video shows the human resources director at AgriProcessors denying health coverage for work-related medical care to a plant worker. In an interview with The Forward, a national Jewish weekly newspaper, PETA investigator said that AgriProcessors’ supervisors showed little concern and were reluctant to allow their employee’s access to the company’s doctor when their workers were injured or sick. The article also asserts that AgriProcessors’ heavily Latino work force were inadequate given safety training.

A month after The Forward piece ran, that described the unsafe working conditions and worker mistreatment at AgriProcessors, two Conservative Jewish organizations, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly, created a task force to investigate the abuses.

…the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly appointed a joint commission of inquiry to determine if the charges were accurate, to learn about working conditions at the plant, and to establish next steps, if needed, to help ensure worker dignity, safety and rights, within the context of Jewish law, values and tradition.

In December 2006, the Commission issued a report concluding “that there [were] significant issues of concern at the plant, including issues of health and safety.” The Commission found:

• Inadequate safety procedures when shutting machines for cleaning;
• Inadequate or nonexistent worker safety training;
• Lack of safety committee that includes both management and labor, to develop training and monitor procedures;
• Concern about unsafe chemical use;
• Unclean and unsafe lunchroom conditions; and
• Inadequate access to safety equipment and number of operable eyewash stations.

According to the Commission’s report, AgriProcessors had agreed to work with the Commission to address health and safety issues. However, in a May 2007 article, The Forward reported, “workers at the plant say that nothing has changed.”

Just recently the Iowa Division of Labor Services charged AgriProcessors with 39 health and safety violations with proposed penalties of $182,000. Health inspectors identified thirteen serious health violations surrounding “hazardous chemicals and emergency response issues including a lack of proper labeling on hazardous chemicals, lack of an emergency alarm that can be heard by all employees, failure to develop an emergency response plan and improper programs for both respirator use and bloodborne pathogen issues.”

From 2000 to 2008, numerous reports from the media and bloggers have revealed numerous cases of worker mistreatment including lack of training, job favoritism, and unsafe conditions.

Next: AgriProcessors’ political connections

x-posted on The Sanctuary

Breakthrough is not new to the immigration game. Last summer, I wrote about the deportation of Anslem Ifill, an immigrant of Trinidad and a Gulf War veteran. In that post, I used Breakthrough’s video story who originally reported about Ifill.

ICED has been featured in overwhelming amounts of press including: MTV News, Game Daily and has been covered on popular blogs including, Gothamist and The Huffington Post.

The object of the game is to become a US citizen and not get deported. As an immigrant teen, you can avoid ICE officers by choosing right from wrong and answering questions on immigration. The player runs through a fictional city, dashing through icons that represent acts of civic good like planting trees, donating blood or volunteering at a soup kitchen, and answering questions about immigration in America. Be careful, if you answer questions incorrectly or make poor decisions, you will be ICED! You will be detained with no respect for your human rights.

Play ICED at ICEDGAME.com

Check out Breakthrough’s video game trailer for ICED – I Can End Deportation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to Dallas/Ft. Worth local NBC affiliate, NBC 5, when Grand Prairie police along with three ICE agents tried to enter Juvette’s apartment with help from management to check in on him, so after, Juvette started shooting at them through the door. Grand Prairie police were forced to evacuate parts of the apartment complex after he started shooting into his neighbors’ apartments. Police eventually entered the apartment after using a “pole camera” to find him dead from a gunshot wound on the living room sofa.

Associated Press reported that police found a “suitcase full of pornographic magazines in the bedroom and a red flag with a black swastika hung in a closet with a few older style military jackets.” Police also recovered a shotgun, semiautomatic rifle, a revolver, two semiautomatic pistols and other weapons from his home. It is also being reported that police also found books about Adolf Hitler.

However, it seems Grand Prairie police is trying to downplay the items they found and confiscated from Juvette’s apartment. Grand Prairie police Detective John Brimmer told reporters:

“We’re not accusing this guy or saying that he was involved with any skinhead or Nazi organization or anything like that,” Detective Brimmer said. “He could have been a memorabilia collector. A lot of people collect stuff from World War II and they specialize in German things.”

One does have to wonder how many World War II memorabilia collectors have a red flag with a black swastika hanging in their closet? Or a suitcase full of pornographic magazines? Or a whole arsenal? Just because he was not involved in a known white supremacists groups mean he rejects their views. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was open about his views considering Julie Myers, then-acting chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had no problem with her employers dressing up in blackface and fake dreads at an office Halloween party thrown last year.

Mark Juvette was an Immigration Enforcement Agent with the Dallas Office of Detention and Removal Operations (DRO). ICE’s DRO is responsible for the deporting and overseeing undocumented immigrants while they are in custody. Juvette served in the U.S. Navy from 1987 to 1988 and then began working with the then Immigration and Naturalization Service in June 1998 as a Detention Enforcement Officer.

It is still unknown why Juvette snapped and Grand Prairie police are continuing their investigation. But most importantly, one does have to wonder if any immigrants were harassed under his watch?

At the time of the report, there were about 180,000 in federal custody, 1.2 million in state custody, and 760,000 in local jails. The BJS statistics also reported there were over 90,000 immigrants (both documented and undocumented) who were held over 12 months by three jurisdictions: the Federal system housed 33,701; California housed 15,849; and Texas housed 9,227.

In a recent “year in review” report, the Department of Homeland Security announced that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had rounded up more than 30,000 immigrants – doubling the number from last year. According to Detention Watch Network, a D.C. based advocacy group, more than 186,600 immigrants were deported in 2006. However, more disturbingly, in 2007, ICE had detained more than 300,000 immigrants. These frightening statistics only confirm this country’s commitment to lock up an insurmountable amount of people; and the reality of it all, this is an integral part of the globalization of capital.

Prison Construction Continues to Mushroom
Private prisons are changing the face of American incarceration. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like winning the lottery. Analysts say profit margins are higher at detention centers than prisons, according to a 2006 New York Times article. The explosive growth in the detention business has drawn many cities and counties to partner these corporations in exchange for lucrative federal contracts.

Last month, Louisiana-based Emerald Correctional Management LLC made a pitch to the Caldwell Commissioners Court to build a $30 million, 1,000-bed private detention center in Central Texas. The proposed facility would be built between Lytton Springs and Dale, about 30 miles southeast of Austin. ICE would house men and women separately. In November, Homeland Security agreed to pay Los Angles County $51 million to house 1,400 immigrants at the Mira Loma Detention Center, making it the largest facility of its kind in California. According to the contract obtained by the Daily Journal, County officials will charge the Homeland Security $100.09 a day to house a detainee.

One week before Christmas, the city of Aurora, Colorado held a town meeting to debate the proposed plan to expand the existing 400-bed facility, Aurora ICE Processing Center, into a 1,500-bed center, making it the second largest detention center. The largest is located in Raymondville, TX with 2,000-beds. The Aurora ICE Processing Center is run and operated by the Geo Group (formerly known as the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation). According to Geo, the facility can currently hold up to “400 males, females, children (unsentenced).” The detainees being held in the Aurora Processing Center are the immigrants that have been picked up from Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and Utah.

In order to diffuse the tension that was beginning to build up in Aurora, Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for ICE, made sure to state that ICE had no influence in GEO’s decision to expand their facility and that there is “no guarantee” that ICE would require an additional “1,100 beds at the Aurora facility.”

Recently, the Miami Herald reported on the military’s plan to build a tent encampment to detain up to 45,000 migrants seeking asylum in the event of a Caribbean migrant crisis. Last May, at a cost of $16.5 million, “the Navy hired a Jacksonville contractor to build concrete buildings with 525 toilets and 248 showers on an empty corner of the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.”

This is part of a larger plan by Homeland Security, dubbed “Operation Vigilant Sentry.” Vigilant Sentry is a massive operation that also includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies “to thwart a mass influx of boat people fleeing political upheaval or natural disaster in the Caribbean.”

According to Reuters, part of the encampment was finished a few years ago. The site can currently “hold up to 400 migrants in tents and cots stored in shipping containers on the base. A barbed-wire fence separates it from a neighboring galley and bar.” Reuters is also reporting that is will cost the federal government $110 million to finish the site.

However, one must be concern if the Bush administration is planning to replicate Australia’s use of ‘offshore’ processing camps – infamously known as the ‘Pacific Solution’ – to process all asylum claims. Adopted in 2001 by the Howard Government, the ‘Pacific Solution’ was the name given to Australia’s immigration policy to detain all asylum seekers who arrive independently, without permission to offshore detention centers in the Pacific Ocean such as Christmas Island, the tiny island nation of Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island until it can process their asylum requests.

The Pacific Solution has been criticized by human rights groups and by the UN. Asylum-seekers in offshore processing centers had no recourse to the appeals system available in Australia. Part of the policy included mandatory detention for adults and children seeking asylum for the duration of their processing by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA). Particular concerns have been expressed by many over the detention of children in Australia’s Immigration Detention Centers. Although the US military did not mention if the new site will also house the children of asylum seekers, one does have to wonder what will happen to the children once the asylum seekers are captured by the Coast Guard.

If so, it would be wise for this government to also take note of the latest developments regarding Australia’s Pacific Solution. During the latter months of 2007, the newly elected Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, began dismantling the discredited policy. Rudd confirmed that the detention centers on Manus Island and on Nauru would be closed.

Influencing Incarceration
The private prison industry exerts whatever pressure it can to encourage state legislators to privatize state prisons. The rise of modern prison privatization was based on the notion that government was doing a poor job of incarceration. The phenomenon of private prisons and their corollary industries, private inmate transportation, private inmate food services and private inmate medical services, came into the public eye in the mid-1980s, when the fledgling Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) opened its first detention center in Houston, TX. Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (now Geo Group), the prison-management division of global security giant Wackenhut Security, entered the market soon after. These developments drew little attention, but this changed in 1985 and 1986 when governments began to contract with private firms to operate secure facilities that functioned as county jails and state prisons.

For too long now, the American public has looked on in despair or resignation as private corporations shape public policies to advance the interests of their industry, often at the expense of the common good. Nearly, 50 years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us of the dangers of “a permanent arms industry of vast proportions” in addressing the looming “military-industrial complex.” While the former general was well aware of the military threat posed by the Soviet Union, he also was well aware that war profiteers in the US had their own agendas, too.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

What makes this industry so complex is that it’s comprised of think tanks, former corporate executives, consultants and shareholders of top US defense companies “who profit by manufacturing arms and selling them to the government.” Subsidized by the Complex, pro-war think tanks have become a major force in promoting our current (Afghanistan and Iraq) and upcoming (Iran) wars. Billions of dollars are sent, without hearings and often unquestioned because they’re ostensibly for “defense,” to Congressional districts across the country. This process, of course, fuels incumbent campaigns for re-election.

The fact is, politicians, regardless of party affiliations march to the drums played by US multinational corporations who fund their political careers. As we try to understand the prison industrial complex, we have to look at all of these pieces together.

Like the military-industrial complex, the prison industrial complex is also a set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment, regardless of the actual need. One of the principal mechanisms used to advance their cause comes from a little-known organization called the American Legislative Council (ALEC), a conservative public policy think tank with members that include private corporations, trade organizations, and 2,400 state and federal legislators. ALEC’s primary function is to draft model legislation for legislator-members to take back to their home jurisdictions and do their best to turn into law; it’s essentially a forum for corporations and government to “co-author” laws.

In 2000, over 3,100 bills based on ALEC’s model legislation were introduced into legislatures by its members, with 450 such bills signed into law. According to ALEC itself, the most productive of ALEC’s various divisions is the Criminal Justice and Homeland Security Task Force, which has passed its model legislation into real laws. Due in large part to these laws, the population of incarcerated Americans has risen dramatically from 740,000 prisoners in 1985 to more than 2.2 million in 2006. Although ALEC takes care to obscure the role played by corporations standing to benefit from its legislative initiatives, it comes as no surprise that both CCA and Geo Group have been private-sector members of ALEC, that both have been among its major benefactors of ALEC’s Criminal Justice Task Force. It is also important to note that CCA executives have co-chaired Criminal Justice Task Force for many years.

It is hard to say what role, if any, CCA and/or Geo Group has played in the drafting and promoting of ALEC-sponsored legislation aimed at expanding our prison population. However, one thing is for certain, each company pays thousands of dollars in annual membership dues for a seat at the drafting table with influential legislators. While some try to downplay the idea that government has been taken over by powerful special interests, the simple fact is that for-profit prison operators need to maintain a steady flow of prisoners in order to prosper.

Politics is the only reason the Bush Administration feels bound to continue with a policy that is demonstrably inhumane and unjust. It has exploited our broken immigration system and manufactured a political crisis by demonizing immigrants. Today, the calculated and ubiquitous use of pejorative rhetorical descriptors define every element of the government’s framing of the immigration issue – “terrorist,” “Muslim” “illegal,” “etc” – a process that only serves to establish a socially accepted discourse around racism and the repression of all people of color, whether they live in the US or not. The prison industrial complex is profiting from an evil in the US that neither Democrats nor Republicans will seek to remedy.

The corporate will has replaced the will and conscience of the people. Both the Democrats and the Republicans have abdicated their responsibility to their constituency. How many people must be restrained, denied human dignity, treated as inhuman for society to finally wake up? How many people must be detained under the name of so-called safety and morality for society to finally realize our society is inching toward totalitarianism?

Immigration reform should not lie in an uncompromising policy of deterrence based on detention as a form of collective punishment but on treating those who arrive unlawfully with compassion and justice. Nor does it lie in a draconian system, which is costly and difficult to enforce, but more importantly perpetuates the inhumane elements of a flawed system that has undermined the integrity of this country.

It is not in this country’s best interests to deprive people of their dignity and the right to earn a living. This can only reduce them to a state of fragility that will leave them ill-equipped to make sensible decisions about their future. Further, it seriously undermines their integration into society as strong, independent and resourceful citizens with existing and beneficial links to the community.

By definition, human rights are universal; however, by detaining these unfortunate immigrants, this country not only has isolated them from society but also has deemed them unworthy of the most basic human rights. As a result, this country now faces a legal and moral crisis of such monstrous dimensions that it threatens our centuries-old understanding of human rights, of what is fair, humane and just.

There is much to be done to help reunite these people with their families and to heal their fractured minds and broken spirits. Now is the time to demand that this country show the same care and compassion to all immigrants whether they arrive on these shores armed with the relevant visa or not. Seeking a better life is a human right, not a crime.

A letter from the Elizabeth (NJ) Immigrant Detention Center

To Whom It May Concern.

This letter is on behalf of all the inmates at the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. This “prison” or “detention center” is run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). We have written this letter because of the mistreatment treatment from CCA Officers and the problems that this center has. First of all, the CCA officers here have chosen a career working with the public. They have an option to work here or not, and we are sure that there is no job requirement that states that they must treat people like animals as they do. Many of the officer are obnoxious and rude. They constantly curse at inmates and put them down. We already have very low self-esteem because of being in custody for immigration issues, why make us feel even worse? These officers are misusing their power. Since we are in custody and not working, our families are having difficulty putting money in our accounts for phone cards, writing material and most importantly snacks. The officers who are working and receiving a paycheck come to us and ask us for chocolate bars, coffee and other snacks. Some officers also bring their personal life to work and take their frustrations out on us. They constantly give us and our family who come to visit us attitudes. They sometimes abuse their power and don’t allow us to practice our religion. Numerous times, inmates had to stop praying because an officer ordered them too. In the middle of the night, the officers congregate in dorms, talk loud and constantly slam doors making it very uncomfortable to sleep. They have no decency.

Another issue here is commissary. Everything is overpriced to the fullest extent. For example, a radio which costs $2-$3 costs us $26 to purchase from commissary. We are not working and our families are suffering and being torn apart because the CCA is trying to make even more money off of us! As for the snacks, most of them are expired or soon to be expired. Not only are we being charged more for items, but they are also expired items! Sixty to seventy percent of the soda, chips and other snacks are already expired before we get them. In many instances, bird droppings have been found on soup boxes and bags of chips. They ban us from having many things, even pencils. Those who are in criminal jails are allowed to have more things than us and WE are not criminals! According to ICE policy for detainees, it states that the facility is required to give us writing material at no cost. It seems that the CCA does not want to follow that rule. They charge us for pens, paper and envelopes. Pens cost $0.30 each, a stamped envelope costs $0.51 and a notepad costs $0.90. What happened to writing material at no cost?

The phones here are a serious issue too. They calls are too expensive and the lines have very poor quality. There are only 2 phones for every 44 people. A lot of us need to call lawyers to discuss our cases and we cannot do so because it is to expensive to make phone calls. Local calls are so expensive, imagine how much they are charging us for international calls! We are paying at least $20 a week just to be able to speak to our relatives or lawyers for only 10 minutes.

As for the food here, the issues vary from day to day. The food is usually overcooked. The trays that we are served in are not clean. The portions are too small. If you are still hungry, they DO NOT ALLOW you to take an extra tray. They would rather throw out all the food than allow us to have a little more to fill us up. If we are in visitation or religious services during meal time, they do not save any hot lunch for us, they just throw it out. We are lucky if we are allowed to get a cold lunch when we come back from visitation.The food has no flavor and they do not give us salt and pepper. It seems that they want us to starve.

According to immigration laws, they can hold people for 90 – 180 days, but for some reason some people have been here for years. Some people in this facility have been here over a year. This facility was not made to accommodate people for over a year. There are no exercise rooms or recreational activities administered here. An hour in a room with 3 holes in the ceiling should not count as outdoor rec. The room is dirty and dusty. Why are we not allowed to have fresh air? Why are we not allowed to see the sun? The air-conditioning system always leaks water on our beds. We have complained many times but they never do anything about it. Some dorms have mold growing which is not healthy for us to breath in. Again, complaints have been made but no one does anything about it. There have also been instances where insects were found. We are the ones who are required to clean our dorms. They make us clean the bathroom, shower area, toilets, mop and dust.

Whenever inspectors, investors, or government officials come to see the facility, they make us clean more so that the rooms can be spotless. They also treat us better in front of these people. Little do they know, it is all a show so that their facility can pass inspection or so that they gain another investor! There have also been times where they have shut down water in dorms for long hours. During this time, we have no water to drink, or to wash up. Some days there is no soap for us to wash our hands or shower with. The bathroom or dorm has no ventilation. The bathroom is also open into the dorm. Imagine how the room smells when people go to the bathroom! Disgusting! We don’t know how they clean our clothing either. There have been many times when they return our laundry with more stains on it, stains that weren’t there when we gave them our dirty laundry. The razors that they give us seem to be old and reused. They tell us that they are new but there are times where we have found hair in them before we even use them, this is hazardous to our health. The dorms are always cold. Now that the weather is cooler, they have not turned down the AC. The officers walk around with jackets but as for us, we are not given that. We are always cold, especially at night. They do not allow us to have extra blankets to keep warm.

A major issue here is medical care. The response time is very poor. It take 4 – 5 days to be admitted for medical care. The medical facility is less than 100 feet away from the dorms, why does it take so long to get help? The nurses have attitudes and make judgments on our health without even checking us. It also seems that the nurses or medical staff are not trained. They hand out the wrong medicine. Technically this is considered malpractice which is a serious offense, but i guess that rule does not apply to us. No matter what problem you are having, they always give you aspirin. It seems that is the easiest way to get rid of us. There is also no way to get dental care here at this facility. If you have a toothache, they resort to giving us pain killers or the option of pulling out the tooth! There was a case where a woman had so much pain from a toothache that she was constantly crying out loud and requesting help. Instead of getting a dentist to help her, the CCA officers put her in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) which is supposed to be used for people with mental health problems or it is used as punishment for those with poor behavior. Was she supposed to be punished for having a toothache?

We are not criminals and we do not pose any harm to anyone. When we are taken out of the facility to go to our country’s embassy, they handcuff our hands and feet when leaving the vehicle. This is very embarrassing for us when people look at us while we are walking from the vehicle to the building. We are escorted through airports also wearing hand and foot cuffs, portraying us as terrorists in front of people at the airport. People get scared when they see us and this also makes us psychologically weak and is very emotional for us. As for being deported, there have been times where inmates have missed their flights because of CCA officers. Detainees are kept in caged vehicles with no food or access to restrooms for 8 or 9 hours until another flight is available.

Here at the facility, there is one television per dorm which houses 44 people. We are not allowed to control the TV. The CCA officers are the only ones that can change the channel. They always keep it on spanish TV which is unfair to many of us who speak english and are not of spanish descent. They restrict us to having only 3 books or magazines. This is ridiculous. They barely give us recreational time, what do they expect us to do during count time for 30 – 45 minutes when we must stay by our beds. How many times can we possibly read the same 3 books or magazines?

Sometimes they allow us to work in the facility. They pay us $1.00 a day if we work. We can work for hours but they still only pay $1.00 a day. Are we not even allowed to get minimum wage? We can’t even buy a plastic cup or a safety soon with $1.00.

What about our families who come to visit us. The visitation area only has 12 booths for the male detainees and 6 booths for female. There are 300 detainees here, many of which are male, are 12 booths enough for them for visitation? Sometimes there are so many people waiting outside on line to come to see us and they cannot because there is no room in visitation. On those days, we are not given a chance to see our loved ones. In criminal jails, they allow conjugal visits, but as for us, we pose no harm to the public, instead of granting us conjugal visits, they make us talk to our relatives through glass windows and telephones.

The biggest issue here is Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). People wait for months before they are told the real reasons why they are detained here. Sometimes, deportation officers don’t show up for months to answer some of the detainee’s questions. When we do ask questions, we are given vague answers like “YOUR CASE IS PENDING” or “BE PATIENT”. ICE officers run away when we have questions pertaining to why were housed there, when or if we will be able to go home, or why we aren’t being given custody reviews after our 90 day period has passed. As for information to help us, there are documents posted on walls with phone numbers and addresses to our embassies. Many of this information has not been updated, most of the address and phone numbers are incorrect, making it impossible to get in touch with our native countries embassy.

We are suffering here and no one wants to listen to us. No one wants to hear what we have to say. We cannot complain to ICE or the CCA because if we do, they treat us even worse. The United States should be ashamed at the way they are treating us humans. THANK YOU FOR READING TO WHAT WE HAVE TO SAY.

Voice of Detainees

Prior today’s ruling, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff had announced on Aug. 10 that the Social Security Administration (SSA) would be sending letters to employers informing them that a name and social security number does not match SSA records. Under the new rule, employers would have automatically been deputized as de facto immigration enforcement officers.

US District Judge Charles Breyer extended a previous temporary restraining order that was issued on Aug 31, that prevented the rule from taking effect. Breyer said he would rule within 10 days on whether to issue a preliminary injunction that would suspend the administration’s plan indefinitely. Breyer added:

“There would be irreparable harm, serious irreparable injury,” to legally employed workers if the government went ahead with its plan to send 140,000 letters to employers of 8 million workers in the next few months, Breyer said.

San Fransisco Gate is suggesting that Breyer is likely to issue the injunction because the advice in the letters is “not an accurate statement of the law.” If what the SF Gate is suggesting is true, this is one more blow to the Bush Administration’s punitive anti-immigration policy.

This move is clearly a punishment by the Bush administration for the failed attempts by Congress to pass a comprehensive “immigration reform” legislation. Under a new rule, employers are automatically deputized as de facto immigration enforcement officers. The policy could drastically lead to an increase in indiscriminate firings by employers if they are unable to resolve the discrepancies. Upon receiving the letter, the new regulation would give employers 90 days to clear up the matter and prove the worker’s name and number match. If the employee is unable to do so, the employer must fire the employee or be deemed to have knowledge that the employee is undocumented and face criminal liability.

The new rule goes into effect in September, however, US District Judge Maxine M. Chesney granted a temporary restraining order sought by the AFL-CIO and affiliated unions to stop the Social Security Administration from mailing 140,000 “no match” letters to employers advising them that some of their employees did not match government records. The AFL-CIO lawsuit, filed this week, claims that new Department of Homeland Security rules threaten to violate workers’ rights and unfairly burden employers. Chesney said the court needs “breathing room” before making any ruling on the legality of the new regulations.

Uncle Chertoff’s New Immigration Officers
Despite the growing globalization of the US economy, employers are now facing more immigration-related obstacles than ever before. It is bad enough employers were already shying away from hiring foreign labor, now they are forced to make a difficult decision involving a person’s livelihood in response to the “no match” letter. If the Court rules in favor of Homeland Security, the impact of the new regulation will be catastrophic. It is estimated that as many as eight or nine million people will lose their jobs at the end of this year.

On its face, the new regulation might seem to have merit because from the outside, the new regulation would punish businesses who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants. However, looking closely, one can see how the proposed regulation is marred with legal newspeak, such as “constructive knowledge,” “safe-harbor,” and “totality of relevant circumstances.” The law broadens the focus of “constructive knowledge” to close off any loophole an employer may use in order to say that they did not know an employee was unauthorized. According to the new regulation, if an “employer fails to take reasonable steps after receiving [a no-match letter], … the employer may be found to have had constructive knowledge” that the employee was undocumented. In other words, an employer who receives a no-match letter and decides not to do anything, DHS might deem them guilty.

Doublespeak is the art of saying one thing and conveying one meaning, it’s language that hides, evades or misleads.. It derives from the words “Newspeak” and “doublethink” used in George Orwell’s classic Nineteen Eighty-Four. By corrupting the language, the people who wield power are able to fool the others about their activities and evade responsibility and accountability. In the carefully worded regulation, DHS requires that employers take “reasonable” steps to address the discrepancies -

(1) an employee’s request for the employer’s sponsorship of the employee for a labor certification or visa petition; (2) receipt of a no-match letter from the Social Security Administration (“SSA”); and (3) receipt of a notice from DHS (usually after an I-9 audit) that the employee’s employment authorization documents presented in connection with completion of the I-9 form do not match DHS records.

By following these steps, DHS promises that it “will” protect them against a “constructive knowledge” charge. The regulation further states that “[t]here may be other procedures a particular employer could follow,” however, an “employer that follow[s] a procedure other than the ’safe-harbor’ procedure described in the regulation would face the risk that DHS may not agree.”

Unfortunately, Homeland Security’ game is a two-edged sword of doublespeak and fear. Although DHS does not have the authority to require employers to comply with these steps, DHS cleverly worded the rule to provide an evidentiary safe harbor and presented it as a benefit to employers who choose to take the action steps. DHS has decided to use a scare tactic by making businesses believe if they do not respond to no-match letters they could be targeted by the Department of Homeland Security. And, it undoubtedly would do just that. By using terms such as “may” and “could,” it is inevitable that many businesses receiving the letters will be unfamiliar with their purpose and unsure how to respond. Even worse, DHS’ goal is to create a perception that the affected workers are undocumented immigrants who have used false SSNs to obtain employment and retaining these workers might place them in violation of federal immigration laws. In other words, these letters are meant to create a heighten level panic and uncertainty, which could result in the removal of perhaps tens of thousands Latino workers (native and foreign born) from their jobs.

Screwing the Little Guy
The policy will force employers to keep their employees off the books. It is not a secret, that some employers will find other ways to avoid loss of profits and productivity. In the end, this practice is harmful to state and federal government coffers and will create unfair competition to employers who want to do the “right” thing. Certain employers will see a clear and immediate economic advantage to taking their employees off the books.

Small, law-abiding entrepreneurs without political clout must bear increased costs, putting them at a competitive disadvantage and distorting the free mark. Law-abiding businesses must also compete against large companies that will continue and the resources to search for alternative employment where no-questions are asked, such as hiring subcontractors (usually small businesses) to enjoy the cost-savings of hiring undocumented workers.

While undocumented immigrants are popularly perceived as unskilled workers who are easily replaceable, the economic reality for many employers is that cannot easily replace these workers without disrupting operations, especially farmers who are most likely to be affect during the hiring crunch. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, farmers fear they may have to fire employees, crippling their operations and making it impossible to harvest crops, which could spell financial ruin. The same goes for the meatpacking and food processing industry. Hotels and restaurants would turn away customers.

When the Social Security Administration began its employer “no-match letter” program, it was meant to help properly allocate the billions of dollars of contributions collected from workers with incorrectly filed Social Security numbers. Under this program, when SSA detects a mismatched name and SSN on a filed wage report, a letter is mailed to notify the employer of the problem. However, after 9/11, the no-match letters have erroneously come to be seen as a tool of immigration enforcement.

In a study conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED) in 2003 regarding the SSA’s no-match letter program, CUED found that more than half their employers fired workers listed on the letters because the employers mistakenly believed they were undocumented immigrants. Many employers acted without giving workers time to defend themselves and resolve errors, despite explicit warnings from the SSA not to fire employees based solely on the letters. The study also found that unscrupulous employers used the no-match letters to take advantage of their workers’ vulnerable position, undermining their rights and reducing their compensation.

Before 9/11, SSA had roughly sent out about 40,000 letters annually to employers. Since then, that number jumped to 110,000 letters, with 1 in 60 employers receiving no-match letters. In 2002, the SSA sent a letter to every employer who had at least one employee whose information did not match the SSA’s records. This change in practice resulted in the SSA issuing roughly 900,000 letters, the equivalent of 1 in 8 employers receiving these letters. As a result, employers have fired thousands of workers identified in no-match letters, assuming that they are undocumented immigrants. Moreover, many workers identified in the letters also quit their jobs out of concern that immigration authorities may raid their workplace.

Homeland Security’s new regulation revives characteristics of past systems of peonage in that it takes away workers’ rights to make a living and allows employers to wield government power against workers. Once the new regulation goes into effect, it will gives employers law enforcement power to check immigration status without any accountability. When undocumented workers demand better treatment, employers can threaten an ICE work-site raid and the workers’ deportation. It will employers to use the no-match letters to push wages below fair market levels and use state power to stop workers from protesting inhumane labor conditions.

There is even a possibility that DHS has set its sights on businesses that have yet responded to previously sent no-match letters and use it as evidence that the company was not complying with immigration law. Racial profiling blinds law enforcement to real criminal threats and creates a hole in the national security net. The new rule is not only harmful to the labor market, but it will also weaken the rule of law, which is essential to the protection of human rights. The overly braod and heavy-handed approach in using the “no-match letters” as a tool of immigration enforcement is also reflected in other US laws, executive orders, policies and tactics that have led to the erosion of our civil liberties and essential human needs.

Eight million employees will be affected, which will have a long lasting damage to this country. The immense amount of human suffering in this country, once these letters go out will be insurmountable. Thousands of families will suddenly have no means to buy food, pay rent, clothe their children or send their children to school. Communities already stretched to provide services to currently unemployed workers will not have the means to meet this additional need, because undocumented immigrants are ineligible for welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, and almost all other public benefits.

Penalizing immigrant workers and their employers will not address or fix our nation’s flawed immigration policy. Using the no-match letters as an instrument of immigration enforcement does nothing but create a breeding ground of hate and rationalize the discrimination against authorized workers who come from the same countries and speak with the same accents as undocumented workers. We are reaching a point where our humanity has become cruel. We must seek to put the values of life, peace and justice above our desire to destroy. A society cannot exist when the cultures within that society cannot live in harmony with one another.