Hispanic groups call for work raid moratorium

Reuters reports that U.S. Hispanic groups and activists which include the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Hispanic National Bar Association, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials are calling for a moratorium on workplace raids.

They believe that the raids are similar to the Nazi crackdowns on Jews in the 1930's. They also accused the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of "racial profiling," or selective enforcement against Hispanics. This comes after the raids that resulted in the arrest of over 1,300 workers on immigration violations on December 12 at meatpacking plants in six states.

Rosa Rosales, President of LULAC
"We are demanding an end to these immigration raids, where they are targeting brown faces. That is major, major racial profiling, and that cannot be tolerated."

LULAC even stated that the raids are causing families to be separated and is hurting the U.S. economy.

Democratic Party activist Carla Vela:
"This unfortunately reminds me of when Hitler began rounding up the Jews for no reason and locking them up. Now they're coming for the Latinos, who will they come for next?"

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First, I want to remind people that over 1,300 legal citizens or residents were the victims of identity theft since the arrested individuals held fake paperwork or other people's social security numbers. When the LULAC said families are being disrupted, the identity theft victims' lives are also messed up.

As for rounding up Jews for no reason, the Facist government in charge had lots of reasons, and in most cases, because they just Jewish. It was obvious that Jews were targeted because they were to blame for Germany's defeat for WWI, the recession and hyperinflation, and for the rest of the country's social and economic problems.

How can this be linked to the Hispanic immigration arrests? First, they were clearly found to be illegal citizens with no verifiable or legal documentation. Jews were indeed citizens and had verified documents. In the early 1930's, they had to register themselves with authorities because they were Jews. If they did not have any documentation, they would have been arrested and deported. Of course, things did get worse for them when the war started and during it. But linking them to the Nazis in the 1930's seems unreasonable.

Some would say that federal authorities were being obvious in targeting Hispanic workers at these plants, but another viewpoint would show that there was a high probability that workers at those meatpacking plants held illegal documentation, and unfortunately, most of them were Latin American.

Obviously, such a high-profile and public event of these arrests brought out Hispanic, immigration activists in protest. You have to wonder how long it took them to respond. How many other work raids occurred before the one on December 12? Maybe it just reached beyond a certain size, and the groups knew they had to act.

Should the raids continue? Or should the raids be suspended until immigration legislation has been passed? But how long would that take? Would we stand idly by and watch more Americans be subjected to identity theft? How would we feel if illegal workers are taking our jobs and not paying taxes? Which is the better decision? The more reasonable one?

In any case, a comprehensive immigration bill must be passed as quickly as possible, or these problems will continue to increase and worsen.