The Wrong Way to do the Right Thing

To start with, our country, state, and localities absolutely need to address the problem of illegal immigration. All government benefits, including school, ought to be halted. Those who employ non citizens knowingly, or fail to obtain correct paperwork before hiring should face stiff federal charges and even jail time in many cases. Cut off the market for illegal labor and the problem will drop dramatically. When they come to hospitals for care, turn their names over to authorities so that they can be deported quickly. Illegal immigrants get benefits from breaking the law and this is unfair to the countless people who wait their turn and do the right thing.

Also it must be said that LEGAL immigrants are some of the hardest working believers in the promise of American capitalism that this world ever sees. They are to be commended for doing it the right way and also showing us what a work ethic really is.

That being said, there was an ugly downside to the raid recently at Pilgrim's Pride in Moorefield. According to Moorefield resident Rosie Mongold, authorities sent men to the Regional Jail while the women and children were placed under house arrest with no money and no means to get food. This shows a lack of planning and foresight.

First of all, I should hope that their Regional Jail costs get covered by the federal government. The Regional Jail system over the years has been shown to be a complete blunder on the part of a consolidation obsessed state and counties cannot meet their bills as it is. Regional jails also have a reputation as being tougher places than even the state penitentiary. Second, some provision for the feeding of these families must be made above and beyond schoolteachers collecting money and buying groceries for them.

These raids are absolutely necessary and the employers need to be punished at least as harshly as the illegal immigrants themselves. However, the workers and their families should be taken together to detention centers in preparation for deportation. Immigration enforcement should have buses prepared to take care of all these people at the same time. That way they are together in a traumatic time, and all can be fed and otherwise tended to. We must enforce the law, but in doing so we must remember that children sometimes get caught up in these situations and they willingly broke no laws.