An Upside of Immigration Inforcement

[Artegal 1]

Homeless, felons help fill poultry jobs

South Georgia plant labors after immigration raid loss

By MARY LOU PICKEL

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 11/26/06

Stillmore — Felons on probation and homeless men have filled some of the poultry jobs left by illegal Mexican laborers deported in raids two months ago.

About 40 convicted felons from the Macon Diversion Center are bused in each day to work at the Crider Poultry plant in Stillmore — the focus of the raids.

Additionally, 16 men from the Garden City Rescue Mission in Augusta have come to work in the plant. Several from the mission have become shift leaders, said Lavond Reynolds, director of men's housing for the mission.

"Compared to the attrition rate [at the plant] in general, these guys have really stuck so far," Reynolds said. The mission might send another 15 soon.

Still, that's just a drop in the bucket. The Crider plant is operating at about 450 employees — less than half its preraid level of 1,000, company president David Purtle said.

The Mexican population in Stillmore has plummeted since immigration officials first visited the Crider plant in May, town residents said. Immigration agents estimated that 700 workers were using fraudulent IDs. The company began checking documents and confronting employees. Many were fired and hundreds of illegal immigrants left town on their own throughout the summer.

Then, over Labor Day, federal agents rounded up and deported more than 125 illegal immigrants working at the Crider plant or living in Emanuel and surrounding counties.

That left Crider with a big labor gap, and finding workers to fill the jobs has been a challenge. Among the efforts and changes at the plant since the raids:

• The company outsourced 250 jobs in its raw deboning operation to Alabama.

• Some processing has slowed because of the downturn in the work force.

• Crider has turned to an outside company to hire about 100 workers to clean the plant each night.

• The company raised starting wages by about 40 cents and now offers attendance bonuses to new hires. Before, it took a year to be eligible for the extra pay. (Starting base pay is $6 an hour; most workers earn more through bonuses and overtime.)

• The company is spending more on hiring and training as turnover is high among new employees.

For instance, Crider advanced money to house the homeless men from the mission in trailers and to turn on their utilities. The company also pays to bus state probationers from Macon each day and is busing workers from surrounding communities.

Purtle said about 50 percent of applicants since the raids either did not pass the drug test or reference checks. Many of those who did have poor attendance or quit quickly.

"Our challenge is — in hiring unskilled people — their ability to understand what's expected of them," Purtle said. "Attendance is important. No acting up, no mouthing off. They just haven't learned."

The raids not only affected the chicken plant, but the surrounding community.

At least two landlords near Stillmore who rented to immigrants have put their properties up for sale. The Hispanic-run stores in town are operating at reduced hours.

"There's no people anymore," said Liliana Santos, 24, the clerk behind the counter at Salinas Surcusal No. 2 in downtown Stillmore.

"They don't have any jobs," she said in Spanish.

"Before, people would be walking around downtown," said Manuel Mendoza, 22, who stopped to buy tortillas. The store's jukebox played Mariachi music to an empty sideroom pool hall.

Mendoza has been in the United States 10 years and says he has a Social Security card and a job making pallets for $8.50 an hour. His hometown of Oaxaca, Mexico, has descended into anarchy with armed fighting in the streets, and he is in no hurry to return home.

Pastor Ariel Rodriguez drives around Stillmore, explaining what happened to each of the Mexican families that used to live in trailers and apartments.

"The majority of people have gone to Kentucky," he said. They knew a priest who used to live in the area and followed him up there, Rodriguez said. Other residents have gone back to Mexico.

At least one local businessman said his business has gone up since the raids. The churn of new folks applying and working at Crider has brought new customers to Mighty Mike's Hot Stop gas station and convenience store in town.

"They come in here and shop," said manager Willie Gordon. "Our inside sales have gone up $3,000 per week since the raids."

It's been a mixture of new clientele. But Gordon, who is African-American, attributes a good part of the increase to more black workers coming into town. Gordon notes: "You gotta be legal now."

[mawilson 2,133]

I'm not sure who I'd rather have working there -- illegals or convicted felons.

[peejay 327]

I'm not sure who I'd rather have working there -- illegals or convicted felons.

US citizens that are convicted felons are not going anywhere and are eventually going to be released into society. They (American homeless & felons) are the responsibility of American society to deal with.

The illegals are the responsibility of their own governments to deal with. Unfortunately some of their governments (most notably Mexico) make it national policy to dump their poverty and unemployment on the USA to deal with.

Before we have an illegal alien lovefest...our jails are full of them too. These governments like to conveniently dump their criminals on the USA's doorstep to deal with too.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Oh, come on, now! That article cannot be right. Remember, the illegals are doing only the jobs Americans won't do. It's a bogus article. I caught that right quick...

[Hornet 2]

I'm not sure who I'd rather have working there -- illegals or convicted felons.

US citizens that are convicted felons are not going anywhere and are eventually going to be released into society. They (American homeless & felons) are the responsibility of American society to deal with.

The illegals are the responsibility of their own governments to deal with. Unfortunately some of their governments (most notably Mexico) make it national policy to dump their poverty and unemployment on the USA to deal with.

Before we have an illegal alien lovefest...our jails are full of them too. These governments like to conveniently dump their criminals on the USA's doorstep to deal with too.

Couldn't have said it better myself!!

So what if they are felons! That's why so many go back to crime, becoz if no one hires them, they know crime DOES pay.

[Mirorgate 0]

Oh, come on, now! That article cannot be right. Remember, the illegals are doing only the jobs Americans won't do. It's a bogus article. I caught that right quick...

Ooohh... good catch. I almost fell for it myself. bad article!

[Fandango 1,440]

Oh, come on, now! That article cannot be right. Remember, the illegals are doing only the jobs Americans won't do. It's a bogus article. I caught that right quick...

Someone call him butter cos he's on a roll.....

*ba dum ching*

Edited November 27, 2006 by LisaD

[mawilson 2,133]

^

|----------------------- NOT LisaD's husband

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The illegals are the responsibility of their own governments to deal with. Unfortunately some of their governments (most notably Mexico) make it national policy to dump their poverty and unemployment on the USA to deal with.

Peejay, I know this is like a crusade for you but you really ought to read into the causes of it and that's where you'll find real solutions.

...illegal immigration from Mexico has increased under NAFTA, not decreased as expected.

One of the best arguments for the North American Free Trade Agreement, one that helped tip the balance in the House's narrow, 234-200, ratification of the pact, was the idea that it would reduce Mexican illegal immigration. NAFTA would make Mexicans richer, and with higher incomes more would stay home.

U.S. opposition to the pact, led by presidential candidate Ross Perot, was motivated primarily by the fear of losing U.S. jobs to Mexico, something that didn't happen. NAFTA's free-trade dynamic helped usher in the greatest decade of U.S. prosperity and the lowest unemployment rate since World War II.

......

Most of these immigrants come from Mexico's poor farm regions, which have been hurt by NAFTA.

.....

The situation will get worse in five years when final tariffs are removed on corn, the farm staple that accounts for 55 percent of Mexico's cultivated land. If Mexico's unemployed rice and barley farmers seek to cross the border, what happens when its 4 million corn farmers are out of business?

That's what free trade is all about, you say: winners and losers. Overall, NAFTA has been a boon for Mexico, transforming a $1.6 billion U.S. trade deficit in 1993 to a $31 billion U.S. trade surplus in 2002. Mexican farmers may be hurting, but Mexican manufacturers are not.

.......

Mexico has 8 million farmers. Economic forces that drive these people into crowded cities or across borders - whatever arguments of economic efficiency lie behind them - are good neither for Mexico nor America.

....

Mexico is too poor and has too many farmers to subsidize at European or American farm rates. U.S. farmers, 2.7 percent of the work force, receive an average $20,000 annually. EU farmers, 4.8 percent of the work force, receive $16,000. Mexican farmers, 20 percent of the work force, receive $1,000.

....

What's missing from NAFTA is precisely the element that makes the EU work. The EU's regional policy pays money directly from wealthy industrial nations such as Germany to less wealthy agricultural nations such as Greece, Portugal and Spain. The result is that EU farmers stay put.

Like the U.S. farm bill, the EU subsidies violate the principles of free trade and comparative advantage, but do so for a higher cause: social stability.

The absence of a regional stability mechanism in NAFTA is its great weakness. Unlike the rural nations of Europe (which included France and Italy when the EU treaty was signed in 1955), Mexico lacked the political muscle to insist on a regional pact when NAFTA was signed. Washington, unfortunately, was not far-sighted enough to see the need for one.

http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/ftaa/503.html

[Artegal 1]

Start your own thread if you want to yet again Rally against NAFTA-- and any free trade pact which is really meaningless since its the law. Not like you are asking for its repeal.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Start your own thread if you want to yet again Rally against NAFTA-- and any free trade pact which is really meaningless since its the law. Not like you are asking for its repeal.

Sorry for dumping on your thread but some things needed to be addressed. The issue of illegal immigration seems to get drummed over and over again in one thread after another. I just wish those who are so wound up about it would at least look at the causes. The issues I've brought up with unfair trade are legitimate and I have yet to see anyone directly challenge the crux of the problems within it. It's like complaining about lung cancer without talking about smoking.

[Alex+R 0]

Start your own thread if you want to yet again Rally against NAFTA-- and any free trade pact which is really meaningless since its the law. Not like you are asking for its repeal.

Sorry for dumping on your thread but some things needed to be addressed. The issue of illegal immigration seems to get drummed over and over again in one thread after another. I just wish those who are so wound up about it would at least look at the causes. The issues I've brought up with unfair trade are legitimate and I have yet to see anyone directly challenge the crux of the problems within it. It's like complaining about lung cancer without talking about smoking.

I'm glad you posted it. It realllyyy pisses me off when people say stuff like "if there are poor Mexicans it's Mexico's problem." There are causes, and they aren't all Mexico's fault.

And even if the U.S. had no role in Mexican poverty and had clean hands, I don't understand how people can be so blinded by their idiotic nationalism that they can't comprehend suffering unless it's experienced by an American. What if the U.S. had a huge crisis, and Mexico was a booming economy? You are a farmer and the U.S. is not helping you. What would you do?

Nevermind. People who make this argument refuse to empathize (if they can) and lack compassion.

[Artegal 1]

So you are saying screw the people we have here in the USA living in poverty and empathize for those living in underdeveloped economies outside the USA? Sounds like some of the people you see on Dr. Phil who ignore there own family problems but gladly armchair quarterback/backseat driver, etc for problems of others. You know fix poverty and provide services and jobs for the people we have living in the USA and let the other Freely elected and capable governments around the world provide for their own people.

Its not nationalist to care for one's own people first--its the role of our government and society to do so--it does not make us less empathetic.

We don't want to be the world's policeman--nor should we be the world's teddybear!

Edited November 27, 2006 by Artegal

[peejay 327]

So you are saying screw the people we have here in the USA living in poverty and empathize for those living in underdeveloped economies outside the USA? Sounds like some of the people you see on Dr. Phil who ignore there own family problems but gladly armchair quarterback/backseat driver, etc for problems of others. You know fix poverty and provide services and jobs for the people we have living in the USA and let the other Freely elected and capable governments around the world provide for their own people.

Its not nationalist to care for one's own people first--its the role of our government and society to do so--it does not make us less empathetic.

We don't want to be the world's policeman--nor should we be the world's teddybear!

There is nothing wrong with being a nationalist. I never considered myself a citizen of the world. I have never said that the US shouldn't help other countries, but there is a limit.

As far as NAFTA goes...the Mexican government bought into it and let the chips fall where they may. The Mexican people can judge their government at the ballot box or at the barrel of a gun. It is their country.

It is not in the best interests of America to continue to allow allow the Mexican government to dump its poverty to the USA as a matter of official Mexican government policy. A lot of Mexico's internal problems are self inflicted and they have to deal with it themselves.

I agree with your statement.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I'm not sure who I'd rather have working there -- illegals or convicted felons.

Many of the illegals are un-convicted felons. Putting ex-cons and homeless to work is a good idea.