ICE crackdown with firings = hiring legal residents and citizens
A clothing maker with a vast garment factory in downtown Los Angeles is firing about 1,800 immigrant employees in the coming days — more than a quarter of its work force — after a federal investigation turned up irregularities in the identity documents the workers presented when they were hired.
The firings at the company, American Apparel, have become a showcase for the Obama administration’s effort to reduce illegal immigration by forcing employers to dismiss unauthorized workers rather than by using workplace raids. The firings, however, have divided opinion in California over the effects of the new approach, especially at a time of high joblessness in the state and with a major, well-regarded employer as a target.
The, uh, “tactic” is called enforcing existing law.
American Apparel commits to porny adverts, as well
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, called the dismissals “devastating,” and his office has insisted that the federal government should focus on employers that exploit their workers. American Apparel has been lauded by city officials and business leaders for paying well above the garment industry standard, offering health benefits and not long ago giving $18 million in stock to its workers.
But opponents of illegal immigration, including Representative Brian P. Bilbray, a Republican from San Diego who is chairman of a House caucus that opposes efforts to extend legal status to illegal immigrants, back the enforcement effort. They say American Apparel is typical of many companies that, in Mr. Bilbray’s words, have “become addicted to illegal labor.”
“Of course it’s a good idea,” Mr. Bilbray said of the crackdown. “They seem to think that somehow the law doesn’t matter, that crossing the line from legal to illegal is not a big deal…”
The goal, said John T. Morton, who runs ICE, is to create “a truly national deterrent” to hiring unauthorized labor that would “change the practices of American employers as a class.”
RTFA. Long. but not as complex as some folks believe.
I admit it. My personal analysis is class-cased. Born and lived my whole life within a broadly differentiated American working-class, this is where my loyalties lie.
Not with corporate owners. Not with undocumentados used to depress wages and replace local workers – or any other scabs for that matter.
If you have political questions over life in Mexico, address the Mexican government, please.
Holler at your Congress-critter to support Bernie Sanders' bill to 
The should go for the disease, not the symptoms… in this case, the disease is the management at American Apparel. Sentence them all to lengthy sentences. Illegal immigrants will become a memory of the past.
Jägermeister
September 30, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I much prefer when the target of government activities like this are the employers, and not the immigrants themselves. When word gets out that employers CAN’T hire illegals, and this becomes widespread, there will be little reason to cross the border in search of work.
wok3
September 30, 2009 at 4:11 pm
If I were King, …
Two fold attack.
The illegals should be arrested and deported. Their minor children either taken into Children’s Services or expelled with the parents. Make the employer pay the cost of incarceration and deportation.
Any employer knowingly hiring an illegal should be fined. Repeat offenders should be jailed. Company CEOs as well as the manager and supervisor should be responsible.
Mr. Fusion
September 30, 2009 at 8:33 pm