As Pope Calls For Treating Immigrants With ‘Dignity,’ Bush Administration Carries Out Raids In Five States
As Pope Calls For Treating Immigrants With ‘Dignity,’ Bush Administration Carries Out Raids In Five States
Pope Benedict XVI has been a vocal supporter of U.S. immigrants, regardless of their legal status. On his flight between Rome and Washington yesterday, the pope made clear that discussing the treatment of Latino immigrants would be a priority during his meeting with President Bush. AFP reports:
The United States must do “everything possible to fight…all forms of violence so that immigrants may lead dignified lives,” the pope said when asked if he would address the issue of Latin American immigrants with the US leader.
The White House viewed the pope’s visit as very important. In a rare gesture, the President and his family even traveled to Andrews Air Force Base to greet the pope as his plane arrived.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration also chose today to carry out immigration raids, arresting more than 280 undocumented workers employed at Pilgrim’s Pride plants in five states. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), several — but not all — of the immigrants were suspected of identity theft or document fraud. According to a Justice Department press release:
For those arrested solely on immigration violations, that information will assist ICE in making decisions about whether to detain the individual or permit a conditional humanitarian release. Similarly, the information will be provided to the relevant U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and state social services agencies so they are fully informed about humanitarian-related issues that may arise in the individual cases being handled through the criminal justice system. Those being prosecuted on criminal charges will be remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and housed at various facilities near the arrest sites.
It’s no wonder that the pope is concerned about the treatment of immigrants. At a recent House hearing, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) noted that children at immigrant detention facilities have reportedly been “put in cells alone for hours, awakened in the middle of the night with flashlights in their faces and threatened with being permanently separated from their parents.”
Under the Bush administration, deportations have increased sharply. In the last fiscal year ending Sept. 30, ICE deported 280,000 people, a 44 percent jump from the previous year. The Bush administration has also come under intense fire from lawmakers and immigration activists for carrying out politically motivated raids against immigrants who criticize the White House’s policies.
There is a fundamental disconnect between our nation's moral belief that all human beings should be treated with dignity and the implementation of our nation's broken immigration system. For the President to put at risk the sanctity and safety of immigrant families by conducting yet another round of harsh immigration raids flies in the face of the Pope's call for humane treatment of all people.
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What happened to “Compassionate Conservatism?”
April 16th, 2008 at 8:22 pmI know this is off topic.. is there any website that lets you live stream the debate tonight? I’m in NYC and can’t find it on the radio, and have no tv.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:24 pm“…arresting more than 280 undocumented workers employed at Pilgrim’s Pride plants”.
There is something deeply sardonic about this…
April 16th, 2008 at 8:31 pm“Compassionate Conservatism” was a spin job to get Dumbya Jr. elected the first time. So was such semantics as “economic conservative” and “a good alternative”.
I just hope the Pope does something with his ring hand…like goes after our Retard in Chief and hits him with a Papal backhand a few times. Old school catholicism is what is needed for these snide bullcrap raids.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:59 pmI find this very interesting as before Benedict was Pope he allowed child molesting priest to continue in the church but just moved them around from place to place. Now that he’s the Pope all he has to say is he’s sorry. Well if that is all it takes after over 40 years of molesting kids in the Church is a word sorry. Would we accept Osama Bin Laden’s sorry for what he did on 9/11. We see that Isreal just killed woman and children by accident and again that word is sorry. But when the Palestinians bomb Isreal all hell breaks out and the word sorry is not acceptable.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:05 pmA small town here in Georgia was raided a year or two ago. The result: the town’s economy was devastated.
Immigrants who have become economically assimilated can’t be “cut out like a cancer,” which is how too many on the right approach the issue, without damaging the whole organism.
Newsprism
April 16th, 2008 at 9:06 pmUnfortunately, the Bush administration also chose today to carry out immigration raids, arresting more than 280 undocumented workers employed at Pilgrim’s Pride plants in five states.
So, my question is, did they arrest the owner/operators of this company. Do you really think that 280 undocumented workers somehow fooled the owners of this company into thinking that they were US residents here legally. I DON’T THINK SO. They knew exactly who they were hiring and they did it because they got the undocumented workers cheap and didn’t have to pay any benefits.
I don’t understand why people who think that undocumented workers are a threat to our way of life don’t speak out against the companies who are giving them jobs. They would not come here if there was not a job waiting for them. If we are really serious about stopping the flow of undocumented workers, we can solve the problem overnight when we start arresting the people who knowingly hire them.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:12 pmnycbassist Says:
I know this is off topic.. is there any website that lets you live stream the debate tonight? I’m in NYC and can’t find it on the radio, and have no tv.
http://www.dailykos.com/
April 16th, 2008 at 10:18 pmI advocate treating the employers with the same decorum as their workers are treated. Round em up, put em in cages, send em to _________ (fill in country of choice)
April 17th, 2008 at 12:08 amDespite what #7 says above, the company in the small town in GA ended up raising their wages, and plenty of Americans applied for jobs there.
It’s interesting that by opposing enforcement, TP ends up on the same side as crooked businesses, the MexicanGovernment, crooked banks, and corrupt politicians (including, of course, George Bush). It also indicates that their support for “reform” is deceptive: does anyone think they’d support “reform”-mandated enforcement?
It also should be pointed out that TP is in effect supporting identify theft and illegal activity in general, in addition to trying to confuse their readers by referring to illegal aliens as “immigrants”.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:15 amIt also should be pointed out that TP is in effect supporting identify theft and illegal activity in general, in addition to trying to confuse their readers by referring to illegal aliens as “immigrants”.
that’s bullshit. There is no theft going on if people are working for a living at lower-than-average wages. Again, if the companies officers were not arrested and jailed, then it’s just the same-old, same-old. Republicans are enemies of Aemrica, enemies of growth, enemies of freedom. They are bad for the world, and should be destroyed as a party. Conservatives are an unnecessary drain on the economy and morale of the USA.
April 17th, 2008 at 1:05 amYou can call this a raid by the “bush administration” because it IS happening, and bush IS still in office, but GWB is hand-in-glove with “democrats” when it comes to illegals from south of the border. It’s a myth, and I can’t believe it’s so widely fallen for by you people, that the Coward-in-Chief is anti “imigration”. He’s only anti LEGAL immigration, and so are the lawmakers of both parties — unfair and stubborn and heartless, and disinterested in reform. I have a Filipina friend who’s waited 11 years for her citizenship, a brilliant lady working as a lowly certified nurse assistant, two jobs in 2 nursing homes, unable to become an RN or even an LPN because her status as a non-citizen keeps off the lists for getting into schools.
All administrations are miserably unfair to immigrants, but your hated CHIMPY is more than fair, monkeys-out-the-butt fair, to citizens of latin countries crossing the border from Mexico into the United States to do whatever the heck they wanna do, whenever, and however. In fact, any married border agent with small kids who shoots one in the ass for trafficking in dope and refusing to halt on command can rot in prison, cast into a general population of latino gang bangers. The Chimp sez so. Chimpy HATES border logic. It makes him yawn! He’d rather do the rumba. He has a lot of very important friends with very big lawns and lots of kids to cook for.
Please don’t make me sick with melodramatic headlines about Bush’s horrible raids on Mexican workers who “might” not be legal. Your left-leaning hearts need to get into the right moral and logical place before we’re going to win the White House and both houses of Congress, and start to change the world after all the crippling damage BUSHCO has done. No more pretend, no more lying to ourselves, on OUR SIDE, either.
By the way, not every Mexican here illegally is a poor man trying to keep his family from starving. Every one of you know that perfectly well.
Would you please get your other glasses on, the one you use to SEE with?
If there’s a story to tell about cruel treatment of Mexican workers in the United States, give us THAT, and leave bush out of it, that’s not an honest slant because bush has no role in any of that. His role is to keep the border open while pretending not to.
April 17th, 2008 at 2:13 amI wish you could see the abuse of illegals in a certain part of Texas that I have seen. Much of it is done by American citizens of Mexican ancestry. They get you cheap labor, you pay them a little something, wink-wink. The people receiving this labor are working in the education system, even, and one of them is a homosexual who hits on young males (of all ethnicities including WASP) who come to the college to take the GED exams. The one who gets the cheap labor for you is a Mexican-American restaurateur who forces his illegal busboys to work at his house after their shift, for zero dollars. African-American entrepreneurs bring in van-loads of young illegal Latina women to clean big beach houses for next to no pay, while the “boss” charges full American maid service prices, which he pockets, tax free. A PIGSTY! It isn’t “helping” illegals to call them immigrants and to cloud this horrible issue the way some on the left keep doing. It’s a crime all over again.
April 17th, 2008 at 2:27 amOf course the pope wants the “illegals” to stay, first because
they are mostly catholic and secondly the more money they earn
the more they can give to the church.
When Bush was trying to get some sort of immigration reform
and he said that they only “do jobs that Americans don’t want
to do” (he always leaves out “for peanuts”) I wondered how he
could be siding with the liberal democrats. Well of course
he wants cheap labor for his corporate buddies. The fact is
“illegals” drive down pay for legal immigrants and Americans.
Cesar Chavez was against illegal immigration for this reason.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez
I have a friend who has been a welder for over 25 years and
was a contractor for a local developer in Phoenix. The devolper had another contractor who had “illeagals” working for them on part of the same project. About a month into the project the developer told my friend that they were going to let him go because his work was “too good” and when the inspectors saw his work first they would reject the others work.
The pro “illegal” people always call the illegals
“undocumented” as if that somehow that makes it OK. They will say “they pay taxes that they will never see.” Which suggests
that they have provided bogus documation to their employer and are breaking more laws. (ID theift or anchor babies SSN)
I agree with Carly Corday that the “illegals” are being abused
April 17th, 2008 at 5:45 amby various contractors who charge full price for services
and pay the illegals almost nothing. And no I am not anti-
immigrant I am anti-”illegal immigrant”.
It’s an election year! Gotta keep the xenophobic base happy.
April 17th, 2008 at 6:43 amCaption Contest: “The guy raised in the Nazi Youth besides The Pope”
April 17th, 2008 at 8:27 amI have a friend who has been a welder for over 25 years and
was a contractor for a local developer in Phoenix. The devolper had another contractor who had “illeagals” working for them on part of the same project. About a month into the project the developer told my friend that they were going to let him go because his work was “too good” and when the inspectors saw his work first they would reject the others work.
So, the developer who hired your friend hired too a contractor who hires illegals, and later, the developer gave the layoff to him, but somehow the guilt is only from the illegals? The developer had nothing ado? The inspectors? The contractor? Revise your statement, it exhudes racism. But, of course, unionizing and fighting for your friend’s rights, and make the employers abide by the law is too left wing, isn’t?
Too many USA greedheads want the illegal immigrants flowing in to profit from them, and from the legal workers. They want them illegal, because illegality makes them cheap. Dont’ blame only the poor people coming in.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:37 amThere are aproximately six billion people on the planet. At least three billion live in proverty and in third world countries. I don’t understand why we can’t seek them out and bring and bring all of them to the U. S. so they can take advantage of our schools, hospitals and welfare programs. I think it is racist of us to limit our compassion only to our friends South of the border. Surely, we can handle three billiom more desperate people.
April 17th, 2008 at 3:13 pmThink positive, wages would really drop, plenty of work for all.
Carly Corday is speaking the ugly, harsh truth. It is too bad that the spaghetti-spines can’t bear to hear it because it puts a damper on their xanax-enhanced euphoria. They will accuse her of being a lying, racist, hate-monger, instead.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:54 pmJust to show you that most Republicans are nice people, I want to share my little letter to the editor with you’se:
Reader does not support amnesty for illegal immigrants
I watched Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., hard at work recently on C-Span, showing on his charts how seven million U.S. citizens are presently unemployed. He also showed how presently there are only four million jobs available in the United States.
How can Democrats push for the amnesty of 20 million illegal immigrants, while providing us with the best evidence against it?
Illegal immigrants are the biggest contributors to unemployment in the United States, and they are forcing many U.S. citizens into early retirement. Two illegal immigrants are working for the price of one American and with no employee benefits. They help the employer in the present and future.
My school taxes have doubled because of the illegal immigrants’ many, many children in our public schools.
While our troops are bravely fighting for freedom in the Middle East, at home it appears freedom is free for illegal immigrants as they invade our nation.
The Democrats advocating for amnesty are saying that citizenship for illegal immigrants will cost them each a $5,000 fee. In reality, what these politicians are saying is that the lives of the brave heroes we lost in this war on terror are each only worth $5,000.
In Pennsylvania we have veterans living underneath bridges and employed illegal immigrants living in the rental properties.
How can our government propose to give amnesty to 20 million low-wage-earning illegal immigrants, all of whom will then be eligible for free government welfare programs, when it cannot help just a few hundred thousand veterans, many of whom just need proper medical care or are truly homeless or unemployed?
Pat Smith Duryea
http://www.timesleader.com/ opinion/ letters/ 20080518_Smith_letter_ART.html
p.s. After 50 years I am still a Roman Catholic, but one of many who will no longer pay church dues to help support these illegals.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:25 pmThe only reason Bush did this is to get votes for the GOP this Fall.
May 25th, 2008 at 3:21 pmLegal immigration can be of a great benefit to a Country needing skilled labor. My wife came here 16 years ago and always held a decent job, paid her taxes and kept her nose out of trouble. She became a US citizen five years ago. But giving a wink and nod to the illegal immigrants spilling in from Latin America when we can’t even care for our veterans, our poor and our sick is just plain wrong and now it’s starting to bite us in the butt. Amnesty for the 20 million already here when we are facing a severe recession is insanity and a very low priority issue.
May 25th, 2008 at 5:18 pmLike the mortgage crisis, our Government’s response has been weak, foot dragging, delay after delay. Those who need our Government’s help better bring a lawn chair and a cold drink while waiting in THAT line because it’s going to be a very long wait.
I guess you could say legal immigration is a good idea (I am considered a legal immigrant, and I pay a lot more in taxes than the average american native pays in a year, therefore I REALLY help the US economy).
However, illegal immigration should be avoided…and it would help the USA to keep the number and type of immigrants under control, rather than allowing in a bunch of peasants without even screening them to see if they have tuberculosis or AIDs. It is better if the type of immigrant the US lets in is smart, has some money (or a good way to earn it) and speaks English.
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:23 pmOh no! Companies without cheap labor? I might have to pay more for tomatoes and legal agricultural WORKERS (mostly of Mexican origin) might get a decent wage. Oh woe! Without slave labor, my privileged way of life is threatened.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:06 pmI’m still trying to figure out why we don’t just immediately execute illegal immigrants. Think of the benefits!
The cells we’re using for their children could be used to house the administration’s political enemies.
The cost of their board could be cut out of the picture.
They might not be as enthusiastic to come here in the first place.
We could put it on prime-time television and sell advertising space!
It would be perfect!
“If we treat illegal immigrants so badly, why are they still coming here and not trying to sneak over the border into Iran?”
June 9th, 2008 at 5:35 pm