Many Arrestees From Trump’s Biggest Workplace Immigration Raid Have Stayed Put

Immigration is complicated.

My summary:

• In 2019 the Trump administration conducted raids on poultry processing plants in Mississippi.
• Nearly 700 workers were detained.
• An estimated 290 were deported.
• Lawyers were able to use asylum laws and ties to the community to get most workers legal status.
• One DA charged 4 managers with crimes related to harboring aliens.
• 3 were given probation and 1 had the charges dropped.
• Despite saying this was just the beginning of holding employers accountable, the prosecutor is now in private practice and no other charges have been pursued.
• Agents help get undocumented workers jobs in these factories, arranging papers and employment. They of course take a cut of the workers wages.
• The factories rely on these workers because they are willing to do this difficult and dangerous work.
• The community depends on these workers. One grocery store owner even said that he felt the drop in business after the raids.

My opinion:

I've always felt that if we as a nation were serious about illegal workers that we should go after the employers. E-verify is a thing, there is no excuse other than it is better for the business. But this is not about protecting American jobs, this is about optics. Politicians use migrant workers as a target to rile up their base. Meanwhile these same politicians take money from business owners who depend on these workers for sustained profits.

We are not serious about enforcing these laws. This is a wedge issue to divide.

Before we can go after employers, we need a pathway to legal status for migrant workers and we need to make employers part of the process. This should be something that can be done quickly and easily. You want to hire migrant workers? Obtain papers for them, pay them fairly, and pay payroll taxes. Then we go after employers who try to subvert the law.

Many industries depend on migrant labor. Many of the employers that depend on it, exploit it. Stop demonizing the "others".

Also worth noting that there are many migrant workers with legal status that contribute to SSI and will never draw from that pool because they will not become citizens. This is how we keep these much needed programs sustainable.