Nez:

I asked this question on another blog. Does anyone know where the wages these folks are owed wind up when they get deported. Heaven forbid some factory owner, lawn service of construction company should have to remit them to the lazy bastards who took off before the end of the pay period. What's that you say? They were in manacles and leg irons? Make damn sure we get them back. Fuck the INS.

And no mention of the name of the processing factory corporation?

That's an interesting question about the wages. We all know that the Social Security Administration is banking billions from those invented SS numbers, so it's not hard to believe that the checks never get cashed and eventually the companies just keep it.

I'm blogging this tomorrow, but my sister-in-law told me yesterday that a driver for the company she works for (big Mexican grocer with multiple stores and a tortilleria in Milwaukee, probably the largest minority-owned business in the city) was stopped in Waukegan, Ill. (between here and Chicago) at one of those weigh stations. That's routine, but after the officer (or weigh station worker, I'm not clear if police officers or state patrols or who runs those places) asked him for his driver's license (which he had, and it was valid, because Wisconsin USED to be a state that actually issue driver's licenses for people who just know how to DRIVE) then asked for his green card, which he doesn't have.

Apparently this guy has lived and worked in Milwaukee for more than 10 years, no record, nada, but they asked him to go into another room when he couldn't produce a green card and la migra showed up. No bueno.

So... it's not so off base to imagine agents of whatever gov't entity (green) carding us in grocery stories or the gas station, I guess.

I lived in Oregon for a long time (I now live in Mexico, it's much nicer here for a brown person), but my kids still live there. For the last couple of years they have both started carrying their birth certificates and a photo copy of their passport with them at all times. Oregon didn't used to be so bad. There was a lot of casual racism when I was a little kid there, back in the 50s and 60s, I remember one day a mother telling her little girl not to play with that dirty Mexican kid, but it really wasn't too bad. But now, mi familia tells me they get dirty looks all the time and have had some other very unpleasant things happen. Both my kids are thinking about moving to Mexico (they have dual citizenship) sometime in the future.

yeah, i hear you. i really really really want to leave this area. i plan on it within six months. year, tops. i'm going to save up like a fool. people make me very uncomfortable at times. even the potential landlord showing me a house yesterday, and responding to my name even over the phone was not fun. his friendliness and happiness at renting the unit seemed to decrease in stages from calling him and telling him my first name to him asking our last name when we showed up at the place and looked it over.

Gosh, I wonder where this action fell in the pay period (like...uh...the day before payday, maybe?). In Florida, sometimes the employer will work people for a whole season and then call the feds just before it's time to settle up.

The New York Times had a piece the other day that reported how draught (that would be global warming) and "labor issues," (that would be the persecution of Brown workers) is causing food prices to rise at a shocking rate. And so the fun begins. I guess Screaming Woman (from your earlier post) is happy to pay twice and three times as much for her family fare. The solution, according to the article: cut back, eat less, skip the unnecessary "luxuries." Like tomatos? Like milk? Like chicken? Like corn? Uh-huh...

Sure that makes sense, stop with the luxury items like "food" and "shelter" and "travel". I mean who build all of those McMansions and roads and picks all the fruits or process all the beef?

Rafael:

Perhaps "screaming woman" (sounds like an Edward Mucnch painting) just wants to show that she's as tough as those filthy immigrants. If they can do without decent things in this life, then by God, she will to. What's that? Oh, she's saying I'm wrong she just wants people to obey the laws that SHE cares about.

Ah yes, I didn't get that, my bad. Thank you democommie. Its just after been accused of antisemitism multiple times in the last 24h or so because I dared say that the oppressor has as much responsibility for violence as the oppress. Damn it all, I guess I will never learn....ever....