A Rumor of Raids Against Illegal Immigrants

Nina Bernstein of the NY Times is reporting:

False rumors of random federal immigration raids have sent panic through immigrant communities around the country this week, emptying classrooms, work sites and shopping areas and sending thousands of people into hiding.

Whatever their source or intent, the rumors have given an unintended jump-start to a nationwide boycott many groups have planned for Monday, a day on which immigrants are being urged to stay away from work and to refrain from shopping to protest legislation that would make it a felony to stay in the United States without proper papers. At the same time, some immigrant advocates fear that the scare will keep people away from public demonstrations called as an alternative to the boycott. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices have been deluged with inquiries about reports of random raids, from pizza parlors to construction sites, said Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman. Many denials, she said, have failed to stem the rumors.

Link, here.

This is a sensitive issue, on one hand, no one wants to target hard working people trying to make a better life for themselves, but on the other hand, a lot of criminal activity is related to illegal immigration.

In fact, criminals (primarily the organized type) make a lot of money smuggling humans and other things over the border.

There is also the need to secure our borders from the very real threat of terrorism.

Unfortunately, it also seems that a lot of corporations turn a blind eye to all this criminal activity, which victimizes the general public and the immigrants, themselves.

Then there is the problem of social programs going bankrupt. Part of this is fueled by the needs of people, who are here illegally and the fact that the corporations hiring illegal immigrants aren't paying their fair share of the social costs.

Tomorrow should be interesting, but the fact remains that massive reforms and actions need to be undertaken to address this problem.

Perhaps, we should give preferential treatment to those illegal immigrants, who turn in the criminals profiting from their hard work?

Recognizing those, who exhibit the qualities of a good citizen should be one of the factors considered when deciding whether, or not they are fit to become legal.

It makes a lot more sense to use our resources planning raids against criminals instead of hard working people.

We need to create a fair and just way for hardworking people to immigrate and address the root of the problem, which is criminal enterprise.