To the editor:

The recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on Howard Industries for hiring “illegal aliens” in the plant raises a lot of questions that for years have been fomented by IBEW, Local Union 1317 former president/manager, who over the years received numerous complaints of “illegals” from U.S. citizens working at HI.

We have read of and listened to “illegals’ apologists” propounding and expounding their arguments predicated on “humanitarianism” and “economic impact,” irrespective of customs, naturalization and immigration laws, which are instituted to protect the integrity of American borders and the well-being and security of American citizens. However, when “illegals’ permeate the U.S. borders, as indicated by the influx of “illegals” in the Laurel-Jones County area, the fact is, that the U.S. security level is precarious, not to mention the socio-economic instability caused when “enforcement” dilatorily ensues way beyond the borders.

Because of the origin, gravity, implications and magnitude of HI raid, the Laurel Leader-Call, in its August 31, 2008, edition, posed the following questions: “Who is to blame for the illegal immigration issue in the U.S.? Is it the government for lack of enforcement, businesses who hire illegal workers, or illegals who come here to work?”

The answer, in part, is all of the above. Of course, the culpable party most obviously left out are the “coyotes” — the human smugglers who make millions trafficking illegal aliens into the U.S. via the Mexican border. We have seen vans, buses and other modes of transportation smuggling “illegals” into the hinterland. In some cases, deaths occur during these smuggling escapades, which are organized in sync with churches, businesses, contractors, developers, restaurants, bars and other establishments that serve as “safe houses” catering to “illegals.”

In other words, what we are seeing concerning “illegals,” though the catalyst differs, is analogous to the “Underground Railroad” a secret network which helped slaves escape from the South to the North and Canada, with “stations” along the way providing food and shelter from the 1830s through the 1860s. I, therefore, opine that similar “stations/safe houses” operate from Mexico to Laurel-Jones County.

So, in effect, “who is the blame” is a network of culprits facilitating porous borders, human trafficking, “safe housing,” profiteering/predatory employers and the “myth” expounded by Mexican ex-President Vicente Fox in 2005, that: “Mexican men and women....are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States.” And this is work with scythes, sickles, machetes and menial tools Hispanics use.

By contrast, blacks do “want to” work at HI based on their indigenous citizenship, customary standards of work, mainstream acculturation, socio-economic orientation of our advanced, post-Industrial, modernized society, with blacks’ modernized perspective of the work place. While , Hispanics, exhibiting their “culture” of a developing nation, are seen in and about Laurel-Jones County working with scythes, sickles, machetes and other menial tools, clearing sites on which Americans use machines and equipment. Thus, this Hispanic weltanschauung and cultural perspective, exploited by HI, other predators and weak borders, are to “blame for the illegal immigration issue....” locally and nationally.

— Harvey Warren

Laurel