Immigration at Work

For months, boxes being shipped by the company my husband hauls for have disappeared at random. Aspersions were cast on the drivers since many of said boxes were supposedly scanned onto trucks but never reached their destination. I feel it necessary to mention that the workforce in the warehouse are all hispanic, hired by a temporary agency and provided to the trucking company with the assurance that all backgrounds have been checked and verified. Seems not to be true, however. And NO...this is not about race.

Last week, the powers that be involved the police department, who stationed a detective in a vehicle across from the warehouse. On three separate occasions the officer witnessed two of the lead warehousemen bringing boxes to their cars. They were immediately arrested, and a warrant obtained to search their homes. A startling amount of merchandise, not taken only from said company, but from over venues was discovered. The recovered loot was loaded into a big rig and impounded along with the vehicles of the crooks. One man's wife was jailed, but released on bond because she has three children. Wanna bet they were all born here? It's likely since one of the felons has been here for thirteen years.

For months, I've been telling my husband I believed the boxes never made it to the trucks...the goods were disappearing before being loaded. If I could figure this out why couldn't someone else? Why didn't they install cameras? People are a lot less likely to engage in illegal habits if they believe they are being filmed. Simple enough, don't you think?

Anyhow...to get to the topic... these men were in the country illegally. They had obtained fraudulent documents and were hired without any extensive research into their right to be here. The temp agency was immediately fired and a new one hired...this one really promises to check the credentials of those remaining in the warehouse. Yesterday, four more were fired for being illegal. I wonder if anyone took the time to notify Immigration to pick them up. Probably not.

Coincidentally, on Fox news this morning, I watched a discussion about how thousands of illegal aliens gain entrance to the US every day. They are using bogus birth certificates, obtaining the SSN of children or deceased people, and with those documents obtaining driver's licenses. These are all documents you need to be hired. Shouldn't someone be checking to see if these SSN are valid? It seems it would create a position and be a lot cheaper than the expense incurred to haul these people back across the border just so they can pay a coyote and come right back. We've lost track of the checks and balances system. Wonder if the drivers will get an apology for having their credibility questioned? I doubt it.