Let me tell you about being caused to live in fear. Let me tell you about one of the the Departments that is creating fear.

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)recently raided a couple of Swift and Co. plants. They rounded up 1300 folks that simply went to work. The raid was conducted by agents dressed in black commando gear, with automatic weapons, balaclava's, and very little that ID'ed them as Agents. They forced everyone into a hall, and cuffed them using the fiber cuffs. For 4 to 5 hours, they wouldn't let them eat, drink, or call their kids (who were getting out of school). When they finally let women go to the bathroom, they had to do so with the stall door open, a male agent present and watching, and the male agents in some cases, due to still being cuffed, had to pull the pants down so the women could go to the bathroom. Virtually every person subjected to this was a US citizen, or a legal resident alien. When the raid was over, and the suspects vetted, it turned out that less than 4% of the suspects were undocumented aliens. A number of these folks, citizens and undocumented aliens, were moved to facilities in another State. One of the men was a Korean War veteran. Another was 6th generation American. One woman born and raised here was detained for hours while the ICE agents insisted she was Guatemalan. Another US citizen was 7 1/2 months pregnant and not allowed water or bathroom privileges for 5 hours. She was in tears just telling of her fear, shame, and humiliation. Another lady, a legal resident alien, when she saw the men with guns all dressed in black, was sure it was a terrorist attack and was looking to hide in the middle of people and play dead.

This is not second hand. I was present and heard these accounts given from the mouths of those who experienced it. This information is documented.

Our Constitution and laws are supposedly a reflection of our national morality. They codify what we believe to be the right way to live and treat others, our land, our workers, and so on. Our Declaration of Independence says We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Notice that is says all men and not all white men that are American citizens. The Fourth Amendment of our Constitution, which applies to all people in this country and not just people born in this country, says 'The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. These documents, and this action cause me to ask a couple of questions:

Where did the terrorists who killed 3500+ people sneak into the country from? Canada. Anyone talking about building a fence on the Canadian border? No. Why? My opinion is that it is racism pure and simple. There is a huge difference in scope and practice between folks that sneak in seeking to destroy our way of life, and folks sneaking in to simply give their kids a better life. Anyone of you that are Irish, Polish, Italian, etc should realize that this is how and why your ancxestors came.

What was it that these thugs masqueraiding as Federal Agents thought they would face that they had to come in dressed in black with automatic weapons, cuff and detain folks when they were simply looking for immigration violations? You would have thought they were going into an Al Qaeda stronghold against armed terrorists instead of simply checking the documents of workers in a plant. On the grand scale of it all, a violation of these documentation rules is probably worse than a traffic ticket, but infinitely less important than armed robbery or worse. Yet they went in like these were the most dangerous criminals on earth.

Forget for a minute the ethnicity and immigration issue. If your daughter or wife came home and said that they were detained, and to go to the bathroom they had to do so in front of an armed man, and the man had to pull down their pants so they could go. Your reaction would be ??????

Read the Fourth Amendment language quoted above and tell me how this isn't unconstitutional? Give me a justification for this breach of our most sacred document on this issue. Imagine that there is a shoplifting epidemic in your town. Imagine if the local constabulary decided the best way to find the thiefs was to encircle the town, and conduct house by house searches and patdowns, detaining you in cuffs while they searched for 4 to 5 hours. This was all done in order to catch the thieves. This is why the Fourth Amendment require one to have evidence of wrongdoing to conduct a search. This is prevented by the Amendment. Yet it is condoned in this case? How is our "Homeland Security" enhanced by such crude violations of the Constitution? And in the end result, less than 4% were found to be working without appropriate documentation. 96% of the folks that went through this horror were legal workers, citizens, or legal resident aliens.

I would hope you would get the distinction between searching out terrorists, and this ridiculous attitude towards folks just trying to earn a living. I keep hearing they are taking American jobs. But the American jobless rate isn't rising. And these packing houses are always hiring.

These things are all a part of the atmosphere of fear being created. And it is a feeble attempt to somehow link the fight against terrorist acts in this country with a group of people doing as generations before have done. And that is to get into this country, work hard, and live the American dream.

Mick