Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/01/a-rookie-ice-agent-makes-an-em.html
Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH a rookie ICE agent totally misunderstands his role and the system; hilarity ensues.
13 Likes
I have been repeating this for years.
If companies were really punished for hiring illegals, weâd have way less illegals.
As it stands, they get tipped off, ignored, given a pass, and generally treated like unfortunate bystanders in a problem of their own making.
Yep, gonna be folks that come anyway, but remove the economic benefits, and the vast majority of illegals will figure something else out.
I wish there was a hammer large enough to get this through the skulls of the people who think a giant wall is the answer.
12 Likes
You should report them.
10 Likes
Iâve been saying this for years. Illegal immigration could be stopped quickly and easily. All it would take is heavy fines (perhaps based on a percentage of gross profits), and jail time for individuals and corporate boards who hired the illegals.
1 Like
Really, can we please discontinue the use of the word âillegalsâ? This only aids the slow creep of fascism.
42 Likes
This assumes that people moving to USA to take shitty, low paid jobs is a problem that needs solving. If employers violate safety standard, minimum wage laws etc. fine them for that instead of who they hire. If âillegalsâ know they can report violations without risk of being deported, it would also be a lot easier to find the worst scumbags among the employers.
22 Likes
7 Likes
People are people. Fuck this âillegalâ shit.
Really ironic hearing wypipo rant about illegals when their state formed illegally (Texas, home of the white supremacist separatists), when their cities were built illegally, when their entire nation was built on the mass violation of moral justice.
People are NOT illegal. People are people, and people deserve to be treated with the rights and dignity they deserve as humans, dammit.
33 Likes
Which is why rather than waste so much time and effort with ICE hunting down day laborers, domestics, agricultural help and kitchen staff, we should be issuing manual labor visas instead.
Clearly there is a demand for the work, little to no Americans willing to do it, and documentation would solve a lot of labor law issues.
But there is no fun in that because it doesnât allow government agencies to be used to harass people of color for shits and giggles. Our immigration policy is mostly guided by white supremacist goals.
19 Likes
They seem to be punishing some companies in my area:
3 Likes
My use of âillegalsâ is shorthand for âIllegal immigrantsâ.
âŚbecause Iâm posting on a message board on the internet, not writing an article, book or thesis, and everyone understands it.
I think this might be on the very bottom of whatâs causing the slow creep of fascism, or maybe this exchange is the very top?
2 Likes
3 Likes
Iâve always been deeply uncomfortable with the âpunish the employers moreâ angle. When I hire someone, it shouldnât be my job to spy and snitch for law enforcement. Down that path lies distrustful East German style dystopia. And related, please resist all efforts to make E-Verify mandatory (and thatâs where the punish-the-employers-harshly angle points towards- if everyone knows the punishment is severe, of course you would use the thing that covers your ass). People shouldnât require govât permission to make an honest living, thatâs as totalitarian as it gets.
Certainly the idea that they will find work is one of several motivators for crossing illegally, but turning a blind eye or not snitching is not the same thing as âluringâ them to the US. Absent a purposeful scheme to import laborers illegally, the employers are simply giving a job to someone in front of them who needs one, and I have a very hard time calling that a negative. I doubt the human being employed would call it that.
6 Likes
I briefly worked for a restaraunteur in Chicago who I later discovered hired undocumented workers primarily for the reason that they couldnât or wouldnât tell. He abused this angle mercilessly, witholding many weeksâs pay for several of his workers. I was in a quandry because if I reported him, my fellow workers would be jobless. And he had the gall to call us greedy for wanting to be paid in full.
21 Likes
Unfortunately this hasnât gotten old yet
2 Likes
A proper and more precise word is âundocumentedâ.
Crossing without using a designated checkpoint is a misdemeanor for at least the first couple of offenses (providing itâs known). By your logic, one could assume most of the U.S. is populated by âillegalsâ, as most of us routinely commit misdemeanors in our daily lives (assault, tax evasion, petit theft, whatever).
20 Likes
I was wondering what was the need. I can understand why they had to tighten the policies on immigration. But it was very, very sad and stupid.
1 Like
Why did they have to tighten the policies on immigration?
Most of our problems on the matter are because they are too restrictive and donât take into account our labor needs or the positive effects of family based immigration.
11 Likes
Unfortunately your use of the term also makes you sound like one of the mouth-breathing right-wing xenophobes being mocked in the cartoon. You wonât hear serious people using that term (âundocumentedâ is the more accurate and less stigmatising term), but if youâre willing to shoot yourself in the foot when making an otherwise valid point thatâs your choice.
16 Likes
