The ICE Man Cometh

Help wanted: NINA  (No Immigrants Need Apply).

   Newcomers do jobs that American-born citizens do not want and will not take. Yet many folks demand that Americans have priority for all jobs, even as they insist that the newcomers who are willing to do the scut work be deported.
   Ignored in all this is the reality that discrimination in hiring is illegal, and that chasing out newcomers leads to labor shortages and higher prices, especially for produce, which depends on manual labor to gather the crops.
   Meanwhile, those who are here without documents proving their legal status are hunted down, arrested and deported.
   But too often, those caught in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement net are the ones who are easy to catch, thus enabling the ICE men to fill a quota.
   Granted, hardened criminals who are a danger to society should be caught and removed. But recent days have seen hundreds of folks arrested and deported for minor offenses, including those who were brought here as children and who know no other home but America.
   And there is the report of a woman in Texas, a legal resident, who mistakenly believed she was eligible to vote and did so in two consecutive elections, but was found out and judged a felon. Result: She was arrested and sentenced to prison, after which she is likely to be deported because she was a "felon."
   Such harsh policies and practices may satisfy an adamant base of arch-conservative supporters, but it only sends other undocumented residents further underground to avoid any contact with officialdom. And this exposes them to further abuse by unscrupulous employers.
   Meanwhile, the so-called "real Americans" have the opportunity to take such jobs as housekeeping staff at luxury hotels, transient workers to harvest crops, and trash collectors in cities.
   Will they take these jobs?
   
   In 19th Century cities, employers often published ads reading "Help Wanted: NINA," which was shorthand for "No Irish Need Apply." Now such practices are unspoken, but underlie the widespread policy that no immigrants, especially Hispanics, need apply.