As a retired plant manager, I am very familiar with employer requirements of E-Verify and Form I-9. The unsealed search warrants for the five poultry companies that were raided by immigration authorities clearly indicate the companies knowingly hired undocumented workers (“Largest U.S. immigration raids in a decade net 680 arrests,” Aug. 7).

As of yet, there has not been a single case filed against the employers, and I want to know why. Federal law clearly states that an employer can be fined up to $20,000 per undocumented worker plus the employer can also be jailed. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the office of Southern District of Mississippi had time to file and get judicial approval of criminal search warrants but no charges have been filed against any of the employers: Koch Foods, Peco Foods, PH Food, A&B and Pearl River Foods.

If action is not taken against these employers, it is not only a travesty of our judicial system but proof that there are different laws for the rich. Every member of our delegation in D.C. must make a public announcement that the employers should be charged with the maximum criminal penalties. If any of them do not then it proves they only care about corporate America and the rich.

We already know they don’t care that our government tore parents away from children or put children in cages at our southern border, but God forbid if we take legal action against corporate American or the rich.

The real guilty party is the employers, as they knowingly hired the undocumented workers.

 

Mike Grove

Belgrade

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