Swift

It is interesting to listen how liberals spin last month's immigration raids on Swift & Company's meatpacking plants. It was the largest sweep ever conducted of a single company and resulted in arrests of almost 1300 illegal aliens, 10 percent of the company's workforce. But suddenly we hear nothing.

Swift claims it obeyed the rules, which require it to check workers' identity papers and file federal forms attesting to that affect. The company says that prying much further would leave it open to civil rights lawsuits. Or is that just corporate rationalization for cheap labor practices?

Then the United Food and Commercial Workers Union filed an injunction seeking release of the workers claiming they were wronged by the feds. The union's internet homepage goes so far as to play the fascist card: "Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stormed into Swift & Company plants Wednesday with military weapons, herding, segregating, and terrorizing workers, most of whom are UFCW members."

Cultural rivals - the union and the company - link in defense of what are clearly illegal hiring practices. And in the middle are a bunch of confused, scared, wretchedly poor, mostly ignorant aliens. And for what purpose - cheap food, corporate profit, union power.

What a mess!

Propped-up by churches, corporations, lawyers, internationalism, politics, unions and others, we as a country seem unwilling to deal with this most serious issue. Rather we focus on gutless nonsense. Case in point, the Democrats first order of January business is raising the hourly minimum wage to $7.25. Swift starts illegal immigrants at $11.50.

Liberals are clearly a few bucks short on priorities for their over-hyped first hundred hours.

Happy New Year, Manhattan.

First published in the Manhattan Free Press, December 20, 2006.