Illegal Immigration Is Bad For Immigrants

Posted by Lorren on July 29, 2008

Anybody remember the raid on illegal immigrants that occurred on May 12th in Postville Iowa? They arrested over 300 people. Here are some stats from what happened:

• The employers withheld money from their paychecks for “immigration fees”

• Employees were not allowed to use the restroom during a 10 hour shift
• Employees weren’t paid overtime
• Employees were physically abused
• Employees were issued substandard equipment to perform their work
• One employee had his eyes duct-taped and then he was beat with a meat hook
• Employees were paid $5 an hour for the first 3 or 4 months, then their pay was bumped up to $6
• Employees’ taxes were deducted from their pay and deposited into the account of someone else
• A supervisor forced some employees to buy a car from him or be fired

Do we even wonder why Americans aren’t willing to do this work? Would you sign up for a job where your employer would duct tape your eyes and beat you with a meat hook? No, you’d sue them, because what they are doing is illegal to do to any American. It would be a lot easier to find Americans to do this work if the employer would pay them a decent wage, give them decent working conditions, and don’t physically abuse them. I guess there are allegations that there was sexual abuse going on as well. Do you want to work for a sexually abusive employer? Sure, Americans are flocking to those jobs.

The illegal immigrants shouldn’t be here in the first place. They are breaking the law, which is why these employers think that they can get away with this behavior. The employers are also breaking the law, but what they are doing is worse, because they are preying upon the vulnerable. This would be somewhat akin to murdering a prostitute… sure the prostitute was doing something illegal, but so is what the murderer was doing.

Some of the immigrants that were arrested are currently wearning ankle bracelets and aren’t allowed to work, but they’re not allowed to leave the state of Iowa either. They’re currently living off the charitable donations of others, but the donations are drying up. I don’t think that turning people into beggars is exactly the right thing to do either.

While I’m sure that many people immigrate illegally and things turn out fine for them, often they do not. Some die along the journey to get here. Some are held hostage for ransom by the same people that promise to get them over here safely in the first place. When many people get here, they end up in jobs where the employer takes advantage of them and keep them in situations that are unsafe and inhumane. This is one reason why we need to do something about illegal immigration. It’s bad for the immigrants.