“Several union officials said that Swift, which has denied knowingly hiring illegal workers and has not been charged, improved its wages and benefits and bonuses before the raids.” Now, let’s look at this. “Experts say the raids could lead to a shortage of meatpackers, higher wages, and higher prices for the beef in homes and restaurants.” Now, why is this? Well, a shortage of meat packers. That’s right, because the illegal immigrants will only do jobs that Americans won’t do, and so when you go in there and raid the place, and you throw out a bunch of illegals, well! You’re short of workers because Americans refuse to do it! So you gotta pay more, and the higher wages thus lead to higher prices so you people at home are going to get blamed for this.
Well, you’re not going to get blamed but you’re gonna face the tell you the responsibility for it. But wait. “Before the raids, roughly 90% of the Greeley plant workers were Hispanic. In Greeley, where Swift is headquartered, union local president Ernie Duran said about 75 new workers have been hired, including about 30 Caucasians, 15 Somali immigrants and seven Hispanic immigrants with the rest being US-born Hispanics, but the raid has not dissuaded Hispanic immigrants from seeking work at the plant.” So let me see now if I understand this. Illegals don’t exactly take “the jobs Americans won’t do;” it seems like illegals take the jobs American companies won’t offer to Americans. Now when ICE goes in and removes a percentage of the workforce because they’re illegal, then Caucasians get the gig, then Americans get the jobs. Am I interpreting this right? (interruption)
Well, I don’t know if it’s indelicate or not, it seems to me we hear that Americans won’t do these jobs, ergo we need this uneducated, low-wage workforce in order to fill these jobs because Americans just won’t do it. When you remove some of the uneducated, low-wage workforce, why, 30 Caucasians were hired, which means they will do the work. They will. I know they hired some Somalis, but they will do the work, but we’re told they won’t, but they do. So if they’ll do the work and aren’t doing it, then whose fault is it? Is it maybe they’re not being given the jobs or offered the jobs. A companion story here. This is from NebraskaStatePaper.com: “Guess who’s hiring Americans who happen to be white? Some of the jobs Americans purportedly won’t do have apparently been getting more popular among the white people who are doing them these days but for better money than the illegal immigrants they replaced. Union officials say that Swift & Company meatpacking plants have been hiring more Caucasians since the feds raided their plants last week looking for workers who were in the country illegally.
“Up to 50 new workers have been hired at the Grand Island plant since the raids that snagged 261 workers there. Hoppes told reporters the lion’s share of those people were Caucasian.” Now, it didn’t say white people because that could be subject to classification as a politically incorrect, so they’re “Caucasian.” Now, this is a story by a guy named Ed Howard at this website. He says: “Here’s the interesting thing about the new hires. Union officials also said that Swift began improving wages and benefits and bonuses before the raids, not after. Was this a reflection of the holiday spirit? If so, it also reflected the fact that Swift & Company knew well in advance the raids were coming and that replacements would be needed if illegal workers were hauled off. The company apparently was just being cautious since it never knowingly hires illegal workers but understands that such things can obviously happen.
“The recent hires at Swift might indicate some Americans will do these jobs for better wages and benefits,” and of course who would have thought that? Well, it seems that the meatpacking industry knew it. If they knew the raid was coming and they raised wages and benefits and bonuses before the raids, they knew that they were going to have to replace these workers. So Americans will do the work if the pay is above what you will pay your uneducated, low-wage illegal immigrant workforce, and this from the Louisville Courier-Journal: “A married couple who embodied the American dream were sentenced yesterday for hiring illegal immigrants to work at their Jumbo Buffet Restaurant in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. Juan Bin Yeung, 34, received three months of home incarceration, and her husband, Hau Yeung, 34, was sentenced to three months of prison after they had admitted to hiring 13 illegal immigrants between February of ’05 and February of ’06.
“‘These are hard-working people who in many respects embody the American dream,'” talking about the Yeungs, “Chief U.S. District Judge John Heyburn II said before imposing punishment. He opted for a punishment that he said wouldn’t destroy the Yeungs’ family or business while sending a message that the nation’s immigration laws must be respected. In a similar case pending in Louisville, Heyburn yesterday accepted a guilty plea from Jian Chai Lin, 35, to a charge of knowingly hiring 10 illegal immigrants over the past year to work at his Radcliff restaurant, Golden China Buffet. As part of a plea agreement, Lin forfeited $42,788 from a restaurant bank account.” Well, this is a story that talks about all kinds of penalties that are being meted out for the hiring of illegals. They’re just trying to pursue the American dream. So the romance, the romancing: “Well, I know they’re illegal, but these people, they were immigrants themselves, just trying for the American dream.” This is, “Oh, how can we dare pass judgment? Well, just so poor people. They’re just trying to do the right thing, and none of us ever succeed all the time in doing the right thing so how can we hold them accountable?” and so begins the snowball. Here is John in Logan, Utah. John, welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hey, mega dittos, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: From a native Sacramentan. I’m in Logan. We are about five minutes from one of the plants that was — that was raided, and a couple things. Add to that list of newspaper articles, one from the Rocky Mountain News, where apparently there are lines of people waiting to get these jobs and all of them, of course, aware that their status is going to be in question, so I’m assuming these people are citizens. The interesting thing of course is I’m waiting to see articles like this because I’ve never bought the tripe that only illegal immigrants will do this kind of labor, so it was posed as though these people are kind of like cannibals, coming in to clean up afterward and then, you know, live off the dead bodies —
RUSH: Vultures, yeah, vultures.
CALLER: Yeah, exactly.
RUSH: Cannibals eat live people. Vultures wait for you to die.
CALLER: Well, one of the guys was a roommate of one of the illegals that was sent off, and he was left with all of his goods in his apartment; he took his animals and gave them to people that could take care of them. So it was really kind of an interesting article. But there are lines of people. Now, I don’t know if you saw this, here in Logan, the newspaper that there are 16 indictments that have come down, all related to various forms of fraud and —
RUSH: Oh, come on.
CALLER: — identity.
RUSH: This is excessive! We’re talking about human beings here.
CALLER: I know.
RUSH: They’re called citizens and they’re human beings, and everybody has to eat.
CALLER: I know, I know, and it’s really sad, and one of the editorials led off in our local newspaper saying this was appalling. “We are not first and foremost a country founded upon laws. We are a country founded on compassion,” and so I am obviously out of line.
RUSH: (Laughing.) Yes, you are, because you cold-hearted extremist SOB you. Here you — (laughing.)
CALLER: (Laughing.) And I appreciate you giving voice to the things that I have always felt and believed. So thank you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you. I’m glad you called. I appreciate that. Thanks very much. Americans will do the work, but I there’s always something left out of that equation. The jobs Americans no longer will do, the jobs Americans refuse to do — at the wages being paid to an uneducated workforce here illegally. That’s what’s left out.