A tale of two ICE raids

What to make of the nearly back-to-back raids at meat plants in Tennessee and Ohio by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)? Let's set aside, for a moment, the discussion of the role of undocumented workers in an industry desperate for warm bodies to keep up with demand. They are here illegally, the law says they go back home. These raids set off a firestorm of debate over immigration and employment within the industry. From the perspective of those outside the industry — which is almost everybody — all meat processors look shady. But what are a company's options, if participating in the government's own programs isn't a guarantee? No database as large and far-flung as E-verify or even the IMAGE program is going to be foolproof. But if companies are going to put the time and investment into participating, there ought to be an alternative to the headline-grabbing raids by gun-toting federal officers. i thought it strange, actually, to read the comments under our news coverage of the Ohio raid. They centered on the need to protect our borders at any cost and on welfare reform to get under- and unemployed American workers into the plants, much like the comments that followed our reports on the raid at Southeastern Provision. Nobody mentioned Fresh Mark's efforts to remain on the right side of immigration law. I read the reports and was concerned about federal overreach, a zealous pursuit of immigration enforcement at the expense of fair treatment of employers.