Pirate's Cove

I love my Blackjack II, enabling me to find the sob stories of the day before even turning the laptop on (NY Times)

In temporary courtrooms at a fairgrounds here, 270 illegal immigrants were sentenced this week to five months in prison for working at a meatpacking plant with false documents.

The prosecutions, which ended Friday, signal a sharp escalation in the Bush administration’s crackdown on illegal workers, with prosecutors bringing tough federal criminal charges against most of the immigrants arrested in a May 12 raid. Until now, unauthorized workers have generally been detained by immigration officials for civil violations and rapidly deported.

The illegal immigrants, most from Guatemala, filed into the courtrooms in groups of 10, their hands and feet shackled. One by one, they entered guilty pleas through a Spanish interpreter, admitting they had taken jobs using fraudulent Social Security cards or immigration documents. Moments later, they moved to another courtroom for sentencing.

Illegal immigration is not always a victimless crime. How many people were harmed by having their social’s stolen and used?

No charges have been brought against managers or owners at Agriprocessors, but there were indications that prosecutors were also preparing a case against the company. In pleading guilty, immigrants had to agree to cooperate with any investigation.

I’ve said before and I’ll say again, it is the companies which need to be given harsh punishment and fines, so that they will not hire illegals, coupled with a good guest worker program which monitors where the workers go and makes the companies responsible for health insurance.

Also from the NY Times,

Federal immigration agents have arrested 905 people in California in the past three weeks after a statewide search for those who had violated orders to leave the country. The operation was the latest in a series of national sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 25.7 percent of those caught in the sweeps had been convicted of crimes while in the country.

But, hey, they are just good people, so we are told, which is apparently code speak for “they will make good Democrat voters.” Of course, over half of those caught have already been deported, so they will have to break the law yet again and come back in order to vote in November.

Michelle has more on the subject.

9 out of 10 DUmmies (only 10 comments at the time of posting) are living in their reality based community. 1 lives in actual reality.