ICE Raids Netted Only Fraudsters, Bush Falsely ClaimsPresident Bush teed off on immigration reform in today’s press conference. But while his point may be admirable — the country needs comprehensive immigration reform — his portrayal of the facts wasn’t. Here’s how he described the results of last week’s unprecedented raids on meatpacking plants:
“I don’t know if you’ve paid attention to the enforcement measures that were taken recently at some meat-packing plants. They found people that had been working illegally, but all of them had documents that said they were here legally â they were using forged documents.”
Not exactly, as regular readers are aware. A day after the raids, ICE announced that only 65 of the nearly 1,300 detainees faced criminal charges, and only some of those involved document fraud. That number has since grown to over a hundred. Still, the vast majority of those arrested in the raids and held for days were not charged with identity theft.
Meanwhile, a number of the detainees have proven they are legal residents and workers, and didn’t deserve to be arrested and detained. Some rights groups and union officials are mulling legal action in their cases. Unfortunately, the president gave no word on whether he thought the tactics of immigration enforcement are also up for some comprehensive reform.
