The latest ICE raid in Ohio was a big one

If the people protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or even trying to Doxx them thought they were having any impact on the agency’s agenda, those hopes have probably been dashed. ICE is still keeping busy, this time out in the Buckeye State. A raid in Ohio recently saw agents visiting a meatpacking plant where the management mysteriously seems to have not noticed that they literally had more than 100 illegal aliens working there, most of them from Guatemala. After being briefly detained, a number of them were allowed to go free with a court date while the agency looks further into the activities of the employer. (Fox News)

U.S. immigration agents have arrested more than 100 workers at an Ohio meat packing plant, the second large-scale raid in the state within the past two weeks.

Immigration officials say the arrests on Tuesday came after a year-long investigation into whether the company knowingly hired people who are in the country illegally.

The arrests happened at Fresh Mark’s meat processing plant in Salem in northeastern Ohio. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it also carried out search warrants at the company’s three other locations in Canton and Massillon.

This set of raids on Fresh Mark’s plants came relatively close on the heels of a previous raid – also in Ohio – where ICE found 114 illegal aliens working at a lawn and garden business.

More than 100 arrests have been reported after federal immigration agents raided an Ohio lawn and garden business Tuesday as part of the Trump administration’s growing crackdown on employers suspected of hiring illegal immigrants.

The Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents, carrying weapons, showed up at two Corso’s Flower & Garden Centers–one in the Lake Erie resort town of Sandusky and the other in the nearby town of Castalia and arrested 114 suspected illegal immigrants in one of the largest immigration stings in years.

Obviously, the agency has had their eyes on Ohio for a while now and has been collecting information on employers who are suspected of ignoring immigration law. In both cases, agents allege that many of the workers had fake identification, fraudulently impersonating U.S. citizens to obtain work. In those cases, prosecutions are far more likely because of the additional felony charges on top of being in the country illegally.

The common theme in both raids is that so far neither of the employers have been charged with anything, but both are reportedly “under investigation.” Let’s hope so. While we shouldn’t ignore the individual illegal aliens who were apprehended, the real problem here is the fact that employers are still willing to provide jobs to illegals. That’s the magnet that draws them and without that incentive, there would be a lot less work to do at the border.

Having worked briefly in a meatpacking plant one summer while growing up, I can assure you that it’s no fun. But hey.. it was a job. And if you offer sufficient pay and benefits, you will find Americans willing to do that work. Hiring illegal aliens may increase your profit margins in the short term, but that’s not much consolation if the government comes and shuts you down entirely. Then nobody has a job.

These cases are yet another example of why E-Verify should be mandatory across the country. If the employers are on record saying that they’re properly using that system and they turn out to be gaming it, you’ll see business owners marching into courtrooms in orange jumpsuits and handcuffs. At that point, the illegal immigrant hiring problem will almost entirely vanish, along with much of the incentive for people to jump the border.