July 10, 2010 06:45 AM UTC

Illegal Workers Swept From Jobs in 'Silent Raids'- New York Times

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• by: jpsandscl

I know many Repugs like to say that Obama is somehow weak on illegal immigration, but I don’t remember such a large scale operation against the source of the problem (the employers) when Bush was in office. The raids then mostly seemed to target the workers. So, who on the right is going to prove me wrong on that claim?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07…

And the problem on my side of the spectrum is how to balance the moral issue of being just to the workers who are here illegally while protecting the living wage base in America.

The first job I ever had in my life was working on a farm in upstate New York. I was thirteen, big for my age and I lied and told the owner I was sixteen (the legal minimum age to work in NY). I worked alongside many migrant laborers from Jamaica, Honduras, Mexico and other places. They lived in squalid little shanties on the banks of the creek in my home town.

There was (and is) no realistic way any native-born adult American could support a family on the wages paid for this grueling work, unless they wanted to live like the migrants. And no one really wants to live like that, not even the migrants. I know they aspired to better lives, it is why they came to America after all. It is why all our ancestors came here, in search of a better life for themselves and their progeny.

And our society reaps many rewards from access to this cheap labor. As Cesar Chavez showed us, there is a high price paid for our low cost produce, it’s just paid by the lowly immigrant laborer picking our fruits and vegetables.

I think this move by the Obama administration is the right way of enforcing the laws, if it follows up with strong action against the employers, not just the workers.