Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Those with lighter skin were released immediately

A troubling report from the Salt Lake Tribune about yesterday's ICE raid on the Swift pork processing plant in Hyrum, Utah.
If only for a few minutes, Maria felt like an ''illegal alien'' in her homeland - the United States of America.
She thought she was going on break from her job at the Swift & Co. meat processing plant here on Tuesday, but instead she and others were forced to stand in a line by U.S. immigration agents. Non-Latinos and people with lighter skin were plucked out of line and given blue bracelets.
The rest, mostly Latinos with brown skin, waited until they were ''cleared'' or arrested by ''la migra,'' the popular name in Spanish for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), employees said.
''I was in the line because of the color of my skin,'' she said. ''They're discriminating against me. I'm from the United States, and I didn't even get a blue bracelet.''
Maria was one of hundreds of plant employees targeted by federal agents.

3 comments:

Dave Barrett said...

windinghills,
I don't know why you would think that. Bush has always been very moderate in his views about immigration. If you want to blame a specific person how about Tom Tancredo or Lou Dobbs?

Anonymous said...

I am sorry if innocent people were held and arrested but the truth is the guilty always hide among the not guilty which requires a sorting out at the expense of someone’s rights. You can’t have or expect toughened immigration laws and not expect the to step on toes. I am sure the police and Feds will be more than willing to use a simpler more exact way if someone offers up a workable solution. The situation is if a finger is pointed in your direction it does not matter what your race the police or feds will investigate you if it sounds serious. And you are mistaken if you think it only happens by racial profiling. Innocent people get arrested and face court dates all the time. The system is flawed, as is any system. But it beats anarchy. It has been just weeks since the local QC police arrested a WASP male I personally know, and several I did not know, on charges that were false over an erroneous comprehension of events. Most of the individuals pleaded out to misdemeanor charges even though I imagine most were as innocent as the person I knew. They all plead out because lawyers’ fees and court costs were going to be more expensive if they had taken their cases to court and challenged the arrest. The one I knew could not even afford the lawyer’s fee except some of us wound up assisting his expenses. The lawyers made money, the courts made money off of the fines and the police shined their badges publicly. Several local police dept. looked good in the paper and not one media source ever talked about the possible miscarriage of justice done to these people even though I dropped a dime to several media resources.

Anonymous said...

This is an investigation that has been ongoing since last February. Why do you suppose the picked the feast of the Lady of Guadalupe or the short time before Christmas to make this raid? This is an American disgrace.
By the way does anyone know what the Davenport police, Scott Col police and State police were doing excorting empty buses in Davenport last night?