August 08, 2007

Christine Neumann-Ortiz' monument to low wages, illegal activity

From [1]:

On August 8, a first anniversary commemoration of the raid at Star Packaging will unveil a mock Wisconsin Historical Marker at the site and formally declare the factory's empty shell "a monument to the nation's broken immigration system".

Wednesday's 10am press conference, to be held outside the factory, will begin with the unveiling and be followed by brief addresses from speakers including Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Jorge Islas, Vice President of Sigma America, and workers affected by the raid.

[Newman-Ortiz says:] "One year later, Whitewater is still hurting. A good local business is all but closed, 90 local jobs have gone, families have been scarred by deportations, others continue to fight... The empty shell of the factory has come to represent everything that is wrong with our broken immigration system. We need the federal government to step up and deliver on comprehensive reform so there are no more tragedies like this."

It certainly looks like a tragedy, if you read between the lines of July 18's hugely sympathetic report "Whitewater factory struggles to stay open after worker raid" (by Pat Schneider, link). Since that's an older article, I can let the commenters speak for me:

[Tired of the hand wringing:] ...Why would any hispanic in Whitewater feel afraid? If they're here legally, they've got no worries. They should be even more outraged over this than anyone else - they're the ones getting scapegoated for the actions of the criminals here illegally (yes, they're all criminals the second they sneak over the border)...

[Toaster:] I would say this story belongs in the "Opinion" section. It reads like if you don't support illegal immigrants, you are heartless shit. Yeah, they throw in the token "other side of the argument" at the end. :roll:

[supportamericans:] I have no sympathy for this business owner or anyone else locally that hires ILLEGAL immigrants. The only fear this has cast in our community is a fear that other business owners that hire illegal immigrants and violate federal laws will get caught. They should be afraid.

[1] fairimmigration.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/ unveiling-monument-to-nations-broken-immigration-system
Note that that's from the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, which has Voces as a member. One other member has a link to the Mexican government, another has an indirect link, and a third has an alleged direct link.

Posted to Immigration2007a at August 8, 2007 02:40 PM