August 27, 2008 10:17 AM
State Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Republican from Ellisville, Miss., and the author of that state's tough law taking away business licenses and state contracts from employers who hire undocumented workers, said yesterday that he didn't think that Howard Industries would be in any state legal jeopardy after it was closed in ICE's biggest immigration raid ever! Under a State law that went into effect on July 1 hiring an illegal immigrant could lead to the business death penalty. You would think that McDaniel would be calling for the heads of Howards owners. After all, we are talking about one of the country's worst immigration law violators. It just doesn't make sense.
Unless you knew that the plant manufactures more than electrical transformers. It is a major source of donations for Sen. McDaniel. And, while the raided plant was in Laurel, Miss., Howard also has a large plant in Ellisville, the good senator's seat.
McDaniel is typical of the polticians demanding local and state enforcement of immigration laws and imposing draconian penalties on employers who violate them .Their bills are designed to show they are tough on Latinos, not to actually go after employers. They rarely think of the consequences to a community of closing a major business for a week, a year, or more. And when the raids occur they are likely to be the first trying to explain why their campaign contributor should not be penalized.
Uh... hello...
The act you discussed does not go into effect until July 1, 2008. What he ACTUALLY said is:
“Unless Howard Industries had violated the provisions of SB2988 after its enactment date of July 1, 2008, the state legislation would not be implicated,” he said. “The possible penalties facing Howard appear to be federal in nature.”
For the record, I disagree with McDaniel's bill, BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIE IN AN ATTEMPT TO SCORE CHEAP POINTS.
By Tell the truth August 27, 2008 11:06 PM
Dear Ms./Mr. Tell the Truth
You wrote that I lied in my posting. You said that "The act you discussed does not go into effect until July 1, 2008." I agree with you that the act is effective July 1, 2008, but I don't agree with your use of the future tense. In fact, the act "did go into effect on July 1, 2008". In other words, any hires after that date, more than a month and a half ago would be covered by it.
Assuming a typical industrial turnover rate of 25% annually, or about 2% per month, we can assume at least a dozen hires since the law became effective. We would normally expect the author of a tough bill sanctioning employers who hire workers illegally to call for an immediate state investigation into whether the nation's largest discovered employer of undocumented aliens had violated the very act he authored. Unless, of course, he was the recipient of that company's largesse.
I do not know whether Howard is liable under state law because they may have altered their hiring practices. However, one would think that their past practices would at least give rise to a suspicion on McDaniel's part that current hiring policies might mimic those which already led to the employment of nearly 600 undocumented workers in one plant alone!
I don't know what the employment scene is like in Mississippi, but it would be unusual here on Long Island to find a single employer with so many undocumented workers. It is hard to believe that management did not know what was going on.
By the way, you wrote "For the record, I disagree with McDaniel's bill, BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIE IN AN ATTEMPT TO SCORE CHEAP POINTS." You implied that I did not disclose the effective date of the new law, but this is what I wrote "Under a State law that went into effect on July 1 hiring an illegal immigrant could lead to the business death penalty", a factually accurate statement.
You may disagree with my views, but as a self-identified truth-teller you would do well to read what I wrote before accusing me of lying.
By Pat Young August 28, 2008 07:04 AM