You miss the point---There is no doubt that the prevention of Social Security fraud and identify theft is a legitimate goal and that those who are in the country illegally should, in many if not most cases, be deported. Until Postville however, unauthorized workers were generally detained by US immigration officials for civil violations and deported in a manner that allowed for due process. On the contrary, in Postville under the direction of Stpehanie Rose, the workers were threatened with a possible mandatory two-year prison sentence and denied basic due process rights. These threats and denials of rights were accomplished with apparent pride under the direction of the Northern District of Iowa USA attorney office. While the Postville workers were guilty of a crime, the ideals and principles of our justice system were soiled by the method chosen to handle their wrongs. The cost, both in terms of basic human rights violations and in taxpayer dollars, was tremendous. It has been reported that the entire operation cost the federal government over $6 million. The end result was to send 304 people to prison for 5 months before deporting them via a process described in eyewitness accounts as a prosecutorial operation that “was clearly rigged for the wholesale imposition of mass guilt.”

Ms. Rose and her supporters fail to recognize: “The role of a prosecutor is not to seek the maximum penalty at every turn, nor to put together an impressive statistical tally of convictions. It is not to use the emotional pain and personal ruin involved on all sides of a criminal case to advance one’s own career or personal agenda. Prosecutors do not even share the duty defense lawyers have of providing zealous representation. The prosecutor’s only duty is to seek justice. Period. This duty is especially important in an age like ours, when the integrity of the criminal justice process is so frequently called into question.” (“Prosecutors Gone Wild,” by John Farmer, New York Times, April 3, 2009.)

Overall however your approach aids in the decimation of the American worker, by making the illegal immigrant issue a big one. It is not.

It is not, even if a million illegal immigrants outside your front door, make one million of your neighbors' lives, a living hell. It is a tiny issue.

THAT IS, COMPARED TO OTHER ISSUES WHICH HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO MAKE IT ONE.

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Conservatives exploit workers in general, hire illegals, and presently spit on them to get folks all riled up. They do this of course so that, once again, the dogs will eat the dogs, and folks will forget what the Republican Party stands for:

GOP: Conservative incomes for the working majority, and liberal ones for the leisure class.

(They also do so, because in general, they do not like brown people -except as slave labor. And for any prying troll eyes: nobody is arguing that an anti illegal immigration stance logically necessitates racism, however it DOES exist).

So we agree on specifics. Your decency however is what Republicans use against us. Think I'm wrong? Well after you gain ground with Right Wingers on this issue, and they are re-elected, they'll demand you also go after those other "scum bag low life lazy bastards who cause this Nation so much harm via high prices": UNIONS. And beyond UNIONS, they'll demand that you go after those other "low life scums": the Working Class.

Here is what I would suggest: you can accomplish your goals -which stem from decency and fairness- WHILE being extremely careful about the broader politics involved. I might say it this way:

• Americans have the right to determine, in an orderly fashion, the degree of immigration they desire for this Nation, AND to have those laws enforced.
• Clamping down on Illegal HIRING addresses this issue with the greatest economic efficiency and with the least human suffering (as it dries up the bait).
• Half of all Americans make a stack of hundred dollar bills less than 1.6 inches tall per year. Some in the top one percent make a stack 30 MILES high in a year!
• Illegal immigration is a local problem and MUST be addressed.
• We have bigger fish to fry.

What think thee?

Jim

P.S. you can also track my posts about this issue over the years.

Let’s hope the Obama Administration takes a lesson from the tortue in Irag embarrassment and immediately stops a very troubling U.S Attorney nomination that would only serve to further damage our international reputation for the humane treatment of prisoners. As the May 12th anniversary of the Postville Iowa Agriprocessors ICE raid nears, we all should be reminded of the outrageous way immigrants working in Postville were treated: first like slaves and then denied any form of justice in swift and chaotic criminal court proceedings orchestrated by the Northern Iowa United States Attorney’s office. Unbelievably now Stephanie Rose one of top federal prosecutors responsible for the egregious and inhumane Postville, Iowa prosecution has been recommend to be promoted to the powerful position of United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.
Postville was a massive failure on many levels, not the least of which was a failure of prosecutorial judgment. The fact that Ms Rose played a “central role” in this travesty and considers it a “success story” is very disturbing. Her role in Postville should render her unfit to be a viable candidate to serve as a USA in the Obama Administration.

What do the two topics in the title of this post have in common?

Well for one, they are both NO DUH issues for the majority of Americans:

Immigration should occur legally AND folks should not misuse consumer credit.

The problem is in the other thing they have in common.

They are both used by Wealth over Work Conservatives to keep the dogs eating the dogs. With such a distraction massive anti labor legislation can be put into effect (and/or kept in effect).

In the case of Immigration, here is how it works:

1) Conservatives know that it's critical to keep folks from looking too closely at who ACTUALLY has the money.

2) Working folks ARE a bit stressed by financial matters. Some folks ARE a bit racist. A minority of folks ARE a bit nuts with respect to their take on immigration.

3) After living off the fat provided by the "slave" labor of both legal and illegal immigrants, Conservatives now realize that the time for overt exploitation is passing, and can only make economic gains by spitting on their former "slaves" to stir up we peasants in (2) and continue their anti labor legislation.

In the case of consumer credit it is done thusly:

1) For a decade Conservatives have admonished, ridiculed, and laughed at we peasants who SWEAT when we work. We've been told how one had to "work smarter". We've been told about the "entrepreneurial spirit". We've been told that putting savings into stable government programs was for weaklings and that Wall Street Investments was the way to go. That you had to be bold!

2) They did practice what they preached. Wall Street types went hog wild and then went bust. They brought down the Nation with them.

3) Private individuals, who took this same damned advice, and boldly borrowed and bought, believing in the prosperity begets prosperity philosophy, also went bust.

4) Conservatives don't want the working class thinking about number one or two. No no. They want you thinking about number three and only number three. Money can't be made via massive speculation right now, but it can still be made by keeping the dogs eating the dogs and in the distraction regaining power and continuing their anti labor ways.

So yeah, Illegal Immigration is wrong.

And Folks should not misuse their credit.

But the most of what our ilk does is linear. We screw up and we mostly ruin our lives. What they do is non linear.

I agree that Immigration concerns must be met at all levels of government. I'm simply arguing that the lead in must NOT be about Illegal Immigration or Consumer Credit abuse.

The lead in should be something to the effect of:

With other topics mentioned as an aside.

(Please take the time to look at that orange sliver, and the mass of folks we throw elbows at over it).

Jim

P.S. And again, this speaks to NATIONAL concerns. If there is a thug in your neighborhood I have no problem with a fellow American using any law (including immigration laws) to rid oneself of that thug. Though I might add, one still needs to take care that the racist dog is not fed.