Thursday, May 29, 2008

Iowa kosher plant immigration raid impacts Houston

The Houston Chronicle reports that kosher meat prices have jumped after the Federal raid on an Iowa kosher meatpacking plant - one of the major suppliers of kosher meat.

As I said earlier, the law is the law (even if it is shit). And there was evidence (but no charges yet) that many workers were being abused.

However, if the US were to strictly enforce the law, and were somehow able to deport all the undocumented immigrants present in the country, Americans will definitely see a lot of ripples in the economy. Most will be bad.

Lee Payne, a sales representative for food distributor Ben E. Keith Co., said that employers hiring undocumented workers can face consequences and impact other parts of the U.S. food industry, noting the April raids of five Pilgrim's Pride poultry plants that netted about 300 illegal immigrants.

"There are a lot of illegal immigrants here working," he said. "Everyone's trying to reduce costs by hiring people with somewhat questionable backgrounds. It's going to cause ripples in the system."

No comments: