Arkansas Blog

Ah, will Rovian wonders never cease!

Just in time for elections. Was the Arkedelphia roundup close to elections?
_

Gasp.

Undocumented illegals working in the U.S.? Surely you jest.

The only thing interesting about this is the business they chose to raid, the LRCC. I wonder if that was politically motivated.

I know a certain member will miss her late-night locker-room "Spanish lessons."

I'm sure some of the swells out there will be inconvenienced by the staff shortages. They'll have to wait for their drinks and clean their own clubs. Hopefully, some of those are also the ones braying loudest about the 'invasion'.

I didn't know Max was a member. I thought only members called it the club.

ARK. BLOG The only club of which I am a member is The Book of the Month Club.

Gee....does the Country Club of Little Rock have Republican members? Who will toss their salad now? And who will toss Mrs. Frankweiler's friend now? And did this happen just before payday? Should I feel safer over here in Fort Sanchez, now that this cell of dangerous hired help has been apprehended???

I'm fixing Mexican food tonight....is that in poor taste in light of these arrests?

How did those customs & immigration officials get past club security?? Surely they're not MEMBERS! Heads will roll, this could never happen at the Alotian.

Maybe the Alotian could send a handful of their help over to 'the club'. I'm sure they've got plenty of dark help.

I wonder if the Hucklbee will come to the rescue of the families of these detainees?

I wonder if the LRCC will be held accountable. It's the employers whom I want held responsible. There is a wonderful little form from the INS for all new hires called the I-9. Current law requires every employer to use this form. I discovered much to my surprise most employers in AR have not heard of it. I hired thousands of folks in NM and CA over many years with this form and had no trouble in detection of bogus identification. The laws already on the books are for the most part quite sufficient if only they would be enforced.

The employer should be charged. I hope children are not left without their parents again.

I agree with Eureka. It's the employers who should be held responsible, not the employees. If the employees cannot document their eligibility to work in this country, their trip back home should be at the expense of the offending employer, and the offending employer should also pay an appropriately punitive fine.

Working--and doing a good job, by all accounts--should not be against the law.

I with those that think the employers should be the ones that are held responsible. At one time they were, then when the Republicans took over the fines and prosecutions trickled down to almost none. That is one of the reasons we have had so many that want to come here, there are lots of jobs offered.

That, combined with the crappy policies of the ruling whiter conservatives in their countries, gives them every incentive to risk it.

Talk about an entire bagfull of carrots, and no sticks!

I know that this will fall on deaf and dumb ears of our Shiite Breathen, but let explain why you hear all the hype about a raid, and yet no employers are charged.

The INS requires that a potential employer recieves a completed I-9, examines the documentation presented with the I-9 (SS card, Driver Licence or Alien Resident Card) and signs off that the examineed documention looks good. The employer is not allowed to asked "are these forged" or are you "legal" (employer liablity isssues).

In today's higt tech market a payroll clerk could be looking at my documentation, and Jose's and not see one discernable differnce. That's why an employer is rarely charged. They present the paperwork to the INS, which was presented to them by the alledge "illegal", demonstrating that they followed the guidelines of the INS.

There is a pilot program where you can register your company and run SS numbers, but once the employer opens that door, a host of other liablilites could come to roost and become extremely expensive for a small business.

90% of all employers are trying to stay wthin the guidlines of the required regulations. They are not the bad guys.

The bad guy in our immigration mess is the U.S. Government.

Congress has sat on it's ass parsing words, ignoring our borders, ignoring the influx of illegal aliens, and little else. There is not a single living soul, except Jim Holt, that the hispanic worker provides a great service for our country. My Irish ancestors provide the same services 150 years ago.

We got a mess, and we've got a President and a Congress who don't want to see it, don't want to fix it and doesn't have the courage do anything because the Red Army has used immigration to demonize Democrats - they got it both ways again with this one and I frankly don't understand why the Chambers and National ogranizations aren't marching on Washington demanding we get this fixed and right.

Did they tote these off to jail and leave their children and families like they did in Arkadelphia?

This is worse than Nazi Germany!

I've heard:

the kids are at Hall High

there is a hearing going on now

there was apparently a raid at University Mall as well where several Asian adults were arrested

Will share more if I hear more...

BlueTicker - I think we agree on many points. Let's for a moment agree on your 90% figure and understand that the remaining 10% are the problem. Let's also provide a large gray area for incredibly well forged documents. ID DL SS RA PP's. (perhaps the SS card should not be acceptable since it would be so easy to forge) Ten percent of the employers equals a huge number of employees and I don't believe the vast majority of illegal workers have two required forms of ID that would fool a person who looks at these items day in and day out. If an employer has a reputation for checking off I-9's with required photo copies of documents, that alone would be a huge deterrent. The last several times (in the nineties) I called the INS as an employer for a copy of form I-9 they didn't even know what I was talking about! Not one Arkansas employee of mine had ever been asked to go through an I-9 process.
If an employer has the required documentation and it shows reasonably well crafted forgeries of course they should not be held accountable. A simple INS or State web site with excellent photos of required ID and printable form I-9 with notations of flags to look for would be a good start. Zero employer accountability or government enforcement has us in this situation. If we don't try I fear the inevitable, Orwelian, costly alternative will be national ID with costly electronic verification and continued approval of horrible pay and abusive working conditions for many of our working poor. Legal or not.