Bellingham Raid Focus Results in Drastically Different Outcome

THE FEBRUARY ICE RAIDS IN BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON surprised many, coming as they did after President Obama was elected. The remnant of Bush-Chertoff style tactics were a brand new shock again, as a mass of federal agents surrounded a car engine repair shop and scooped many workers into buses waiting in the back.

Shortly after, Janet Napolitano confessed that the raid had taken even her by surprise, that she was not consulted, and that she would order a review. Speaker Pelosi was soon quoted speaking out against the devastating effects our “enforcement” tactics have been having on communities.

Did the focus have an effect on how this raid played out in the aftermath?

Amy Kudwa, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said there was no policy shift and that other worksite immigration inspections had taken place since the Bellingham raid.

But Rosalinda Guillen said people in the pro-immigrant rights community were heartened by the fact that shortly after Napolitano ordered a review of the Bellingham case the immigrant workers who were still in immigration detention were released.

“I was just flabbergasted,” Guillen said. And the same immigration agents who had arrested the workers, she said, now promised them visas that would allow them to work temporarily in the U.S.

“Homeland Security drove them to the place where they had to go to fill out the paperwork for the work permits,” she said “That is totally unheard of.” …

After 11 years of living illegally in the United States, it was not until Gerardo Arreola Gonzalez was nearly deported that he finally received permission to work here.

—Illegal immigrants detained, then freed to work

Now look at that. No shattered community, no ankle bracelet, no tears, no lonely children, no jail. Man goes back to work next day, helps make products for the company, his boss pays him, his family eats, they live together and life goes on, and hey—the nation keeps growing.

Wow, I bet if that happened all over, that would just destroy the USA! Just like NumbersUSA, CIS, and FAIR are always weeping and moaning about. Maybe we should start giving these “anti-immigrant” groups more credit, like the CNN article does by positioning Ira Mehlman’s response directly opposite the Democratic Speaker of the House.