Illegal Workers Swept From Jobs in ‘Silent Raids’
The Obama administration has replaced immigration raids at factories and farms …with sending federal agents to scour companies’ records for illegal immigrant workers.
While the sweeps of the past commonly led to the deportation of such workers, the “silent raids,” as employers call the audits, usually result in the workers being fired, but in many cases they are not deported.
Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted audits of employee files at more than 2,900 companies. The agency has levied a record $3 million in civil fines so far this year on businesses that hired unauthorized immigrants, according to official figures.
What do the worlds religious texts and traditions
suggest the authorities do about illegal immigration?
…The audits force businesses to fire every suspected illegal immigrant on the payroll— not just those who happened to be on duty at the time of a raid — and make it much harder to hire other unauthorized workers as replacements.
If hiring illegal aliens increases business profitability
at the expense of legal workers
have low skilled immigrant workers
lowered poorly educated American’s income?
…“Instead of hundreds of agents going after one company, now one agent can go after hundreds of companies,” said Mark K. Reed, president of Border Management Strategies…
…Employers say the Obama administration is leaving them short of labor for some low-wage work, conducting silent raids but offering no new legal immigrant laborers in occupations, like farm work, that Americans continue to shun despite the recession.
Have overextended unemployment benefits
artificially reduced demand for low paying, labor intensive agricultural work?
…Immigrant advocates said they are surprised and frustrated with Mr. Obama, after seeing an increase in enforcement activity since he took office. “It would be easier to fight if it was a big raid,” said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, a group in Seattle. “But this is happening everywhere and often.”.
If you were Superman
what would you do about illegal immigration?Julia Preston
New York Times, Saturday, July 9, 2010If my theory of relativity is proven successful
Germany will claim me as a German
and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world
Should my theory prove untrue
France will say that I am a German
and Germany will declare that I am a Jew
Albert Einstein
5/7/11
If there were far fewer illegal immigrants during the economic turmoil of the 1970’s, should there be more or less anti-immigrant friction as economic volatility and unemployment increases?
12/13/09
Greensboro, Guilford County and a family of 5.
If a family of 2 parents and 3 kids can’t afford a vacation, and the parents decide on a family election, in which the 3 kids vote in favor, who should accept responsibility when the parents can't pay the mortgage?
Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed
whatever follies I have witnessed…
have been the consequence of action without thought.
Bernard Baruch
American financier and presidential advisor
What if the parents are Guilford County’s Commissioners and Greensboro’s City Council, who authorized about 77% more debt for voters to approve or not in 2008’s election?
Half the work that is done in this world
is to make things appear what they are not
Elias Root Beadle
Guilford County Total Debt + City of Greensboro Total Debt as of June, 30 2008:
$562,827,364 + $584,713,000 = $1,147,540,364
Guilford County + City of Greensboro debt authorized for November, 2008’s election:
$676,930,000 + $205,000,000 = $881,930,000
Proportion of debt on November 2008’s ballot to Total Debt:
$881,930,000 / $1,147,540,364 = 0.768539415
The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure,
when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.
Patrick Henry
Was Greensboro and Guilford County’s electorate provided enough relevant information to determine whether a 77% debt increase, not including interest, was in the best interests of the community?
7/20/09
At what point does a political contributionbecome a bribe?
To become a legislator
and have the responsibility of unraveling the thicket of problems
surrounding the…budget
one first has to run for office
And to run for office
candidates need to raise money from some of the same people
who have an abiding interest in the decisions made…
That’s a problem
according to government watchdog Democracy North Carolina
which says the state’s top 36 most generous political action committees
or PACs
will be looking for a return on the $7 million
they invested during the 2008 campaign cycle
“The PACs apparently believe it’s in their interest
to give a lot of money as an investment in something”
said Bob Hall, who heads Democracy North Carolina
“They’re definitely trying to ingratiate themselves
with an expectation that they’re going to get something back”
…Hall said this year’s budget situation
makes that long-standing practice particularly troublesome
There are questions about which taxes will be raised
and which programs will be cut
The question Hall raises is this
Will legislators be willing to hurt the interests of big political donors
to balance the budget and not harm those
who don’t have a big voice in the political process?
…It’s the chicken-and-egg problem of modern American politics
Do campaign donations chase politicians with certain policies
or are politicians swayed by donors?
Campaign donors hold stake in budget
7/10/09
City of GreensboroCity Council Candidate Information Request III
How can Greensboro’s City Council justify the continued employment of a lobbyist who represents a monopolistic cable interest, that just tried to raise internet rates, that represents the City of Greensboro at the same time?
What were the lobbyist’s coincident positions on raising internet rates while working for the city and the cable interest simultaneously?
Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson probed city staff on May 19
about an allegation that the city’s lobbyist
…also represents the cable industry
…the NC Lobbying Compliance Division
lists [the City of Greensboro’s Lobbyist] as an active lobbyist
for both the NC Association of Broadcasters
and the NC Cable Telecommunications Association
Greensboro lobbyist also represents cable industry
7/8/09
Which proposalrepresents the best long-term interestsof a society’s children?
Illinois Gov Pat Quinn vetoed the state budget Tuesday
and yet again called for an additional $1 billion in spending cuts
The proposed budget cuts include 2,600 layoffs
and up to 12 furlough days for state employees
Among the governor’s proposed cuts are
$140 million from Medicaid and health insurance
$250 million in targeted reductions in grant programs
$125 million from the Department of Corrections
$175 million cut from proposed increases for K-12 education
$25 million from other state offices, departments and agencies
$100 million in additional reserves
St Louis Business Journal, July 7, 2009
Can absorbing more small losses sooner
and keeping winners longer
increase return?
Can winning
be slowly losing for as long as possible?
Gov Beverly Perdue tried Tuesday to loosen a knot
in the state budget negotiations at the Legislature
offering her own $1.6 billion tax plan
that's larger
than either House or Senate Democrats have proposed
She has said about $1.5 billion in additional money was needed
to protect public education and other vital services
from painful cuts during a year with an unprecedented budget gap
of $4.7 billion
She suggested raising the sales tax most consumers pay
from 6.75 percent to 7.75 percent for 13 months
and place an "emergency surcharge" on the highest wage earners
such as couples who make more than $1 million
for two years
NC governor offers $1.6B tax plan to end deadlock
Associated Press, July 8, 2009
If good judgment comes from experience
does experience come from bad judgment?
7/4/09
Why hasn’t the Executive Branch or Congressoffered legislation mandating Medicare and Medicaidnegotiate prescription prices?
A Tumor at the Heart of Medicare
Medicare Part D
the prescription benefit that went into effect three years ago
was supposed to let the elderly get their medicines more cheaply
by creating competition between private insurers
…But the cost to taxpayers
has been 3.5 times the market value of those prescriptions
…Legislation was pushed
paid for and effectively drafted by thousands of lobbyists
Proposals requiring the government
to use the buying power of 40 million Medicare patients
to negotiate prescription prices
were defeated
…So prices under Medicare private insurance plans
for the top 10 medications shot up
…At sites like www.maplight.org
you can see whose campaigns have gotten the plushest contributions
Mark Lange
New York Times
Why wouldn’t the healthcare industry’s position
as a top political campaign contributor
correlate to subsidized healthcare
being one of the government’s largest expenditures
and if not, why does the healthcare industry
contribute so much to those who wouldn’t reduce profits?
Why are the United States and New Zealand
the only developed countries who permit pharmaceutical companies
to market directly to consumers
how much could the media industry lose if drug advertising was illegal
and why isn’t prescription promotion a political issue?
Does America’s healthcare industry maintain high profit margins
by providing superior care and/or medicine
or by financing the political process with profits provided by patients?
3/19/09
Do some politicians pacify the electorate with platitudeswhile promising the status quoto those enjoying legislated benefits?
The art of government consists of taking as much money as possible
from one party of citizens to give to the other
Voltaire
Did US legislators
who voted in favor of the Wall Street rescue plan
on September 29th 2008
receive ~54% more in campaign contributions
from financial interests
than the lawmakers who voted against the bill?
Why would legislators
who received targeted campaign contributions
be relatively protective of certain entities?
It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change
and a greater evil than this
The conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder
Frederic Bastiat
What would our Founding Fathers think?
What would they think of the Fed?
Of the influence of Congress?
Of earmarks?
Of Keynesian economics?
Of our tax code and its use of it?
Of our country being run by politicians and bureaucrats
instead of the private sector
which the US Constitution was supposed to protect?
Of gold at $900+ and the treatment of the sacred US dollar?
Of the SEC, OTS, FDIC, FTC, FHFA, and OCC?
Do some politicians pacify the electorate with platitudeswhile promising the status quoto those enjoying legislated benefits?
The art of government consists of taking as much money as possible
from one party of citizens to give to the other
Voltaire
Did US legislators
who voted in favor of the Wall Street rescue plan
on September 29th 2008
receive ~54% more in campaign contributions
from financial interests
than the lawmakers who voted against the bill?
Why would legislators
who received targeted campaign contributions
be relatively protective of certain entities?
It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change
and a greater evil than this
The conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder
Frederic Bastiat
What would our Founding Fathers think?
What would they think of the Fed?
Of the influence of Congress?
Of earmarks?
Of Keynesian economics?
Of our tax code and its use of it?
Of our country being run by politicians and bureaucrats
instead of the private sector
which the US Constitution was supposed to protect?
Of gold at $900+ and the treatment of the sacred US dollar?
Of the SEC, OTS, FDIC, FTC, FHFA, and OCC?
3/18/09
How much and for how longhave members of the Senate Banking Committeeand the House Financial Services Committeetaken from whom?
Son when you grow up
Would you be the savior of the broken
The beaten and the damned?
Will you defeat them
Your demons, and all the non believers
The plans that they have made?
Black Parade
My Chemical Romance
If Alfonse D'Amato, Phil Gramm, Paul Sarbanes
Richard Shelby and Christopher Dodd
chaired the Senate Banking Committee from 1995 to the present
while Michael Oxley, James Leach and Barney Frank
led in the House of Representatives
why was what legislation introduced by whom?
A democracy will continue to exist
up until the time that voters discover
that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury
From that moment on
the majority always votes for the candidates
who promise the most benefits…
with the result that every democracy
will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy…
…nations always progressed through the following sequence
From bondage to spiritual faith
from spiritual faith to great courage
from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance
from abundance to complacency
from complacency to apathy
from apathy to dependence
from dependence back into bondage
Unknown
If the National Football League’s revenue
comes from television contracts, licensed paraphernalia, and ticket sales
and divided up between teams in two conferences
and special interest and corporate contributions
are relatively divided up between two political parties
depending on who currently holds more power
do most fans and constituents tend to cheer for their team
even though the financial foundations of both systems
enrich both sides of the same businesses
who exclude all and/or most of the nonaffiliated from participation?
Why is opensecrets.org down?
How much and for how longhave members of the Senate Banking Committeeand the House Financial Services Committeetaken from whom?
Son when you grow up
Would you be the savior of the broken
The beaten and the damned?
Will you defeat them
Your demons, and all the non believers
The plans that they have made?
Black Parade
My Chemical Romance
If Alfonse D'Amato, Phil Gramm, Paul Sarbanes
Richard Shelby and Christopher Dodd
chaired the Senate Banking Committee from 1995 to the present
while Michael Oxley, James Leach and Barney Frank
led in the House of Representatives
why was what legislation introduced by whom?
A democracy will continue to exist
up until the time that voters discover
that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury
From that moment on
the majority always votes for the candidates
who promise the most benefits…
with the result that every democracy
will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy…
…nations always progressed through the following sequence
From bondage to spiritual faith
from spiritual faith to great courage
from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance
from abundance to complacency
from complacency to apathy
from apathy to dependence
from dependence back into bondage
Unknown
If the National Football League’s revenue
comes from television contracts, licensed paraphernalia, and ticket sales
and divided up between teams in two conferences
and special interest and corporate contributions
are relatively divided up between two political parties
depending on who currently holds more power
do most fans and constituents tend to cheer for their team
even though the financial foundations of both systems
enrich both sides of the same businesses
who exclude all and/or most of the nonaffiliated from participation?
Why is opensecrets.org down?
3/17/09
Paulson, Buffet and Geithner
Click on bold faced type for story links
Why, on September 23, 2008
would Warren Buffet invest in a company
whose former CEO made millions enabling the real estate bubble
and after becoming Treasury Secretary
saved a company with financial ties to his prior employer
on September 16th
while allowing a former competitor to fail on September 14th
and who proposed
without regard to any other provision of law…
designating financial institutions
as financial agents of the Government…
subject to supervision by the Secretary
whose decisions
and may not be reviewed by any court of law
with $700 billion of taxpayer money?
If Geithner figured it out, when?
It all appears, once again
to be the same insiders protecting themselves
against sharing the pain and risk of their own bad adventure