October 10, 2006

Miranda Vagg transcribes growers pining for cheap labor

Miranda Vagg of the "Greater Niagara Newspapers" group (printed in New York's "Lockport Union-Sun & Journal") offers a slab of pro-illegal immigration propaganda called "IMMIGRATION RAIDS: Local farmers reeling from busts". It bears many of the hallmarks of similar stories:

* growers whine about crops rotting in the fields due to immigration enforcement and complain about losing money...
* it fails to note at least two key affiliations of someone quoted...
* Godwin's law is invoked.

It starts:

Crops are rotting as a consequence of recent immigration raids in Orleans, Niagara, Monroe and Genesee counties.

"I'm probably going to end up leaving $2 million worth of crop in the field and it's adding up every day," said Maureen Torrey, who owns Torrey Farms, located in Orleans, Niagara and Genesee counties...

Vagg doesn't disclose two of Torrey's key links: she's co-chairman of United Fresh Produce Association, and on September 13 she and Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) held a rally on Capitol Hill in support of the AgJobs amnesty, something that Torrey Farms has also endorsed.

Then, we get to the misunderstanding/overacting/drama queen part of the article:

Torrey likened her recent experience with immigration officials to war.

"It's a dirty job and we stand next to them, working together, and then to see these people chased, you feel like it's Germany all over again," she said.

Watching those she works with every day get taken away is like having a death in the family, Torrey added...

She wasn't likening it to "war", she was likening it to Nazi Germany, with ICE in the role of the Gestapo. A similar statement from a cheap labor pimp is in this post, which links to other pimps saying similar things. One wonders whether Vagg wasn't paying attention or whether she just needs extra help to understand how inflammatory Torrey was trying to be.

Apparently despite her influence, Torrey was raided, and she makes some perhaps exagerated claims regarding that. Then, we get this interesting note:

Torrey said she was raided once before, in 1997. The workers at Torrey Farms are referred to her by the NYS Department of Labor.

If that's true, and if some of those refered workers turn out to be illegal aliens, does that mean that the NYSDL isn't checking immigration status of those they refer, or did they check but they put them through anyway? Maybe a real reporter should check that out.

And:

[Robin Roberts, owner of Lynnette & Sons in Kent] and other local growers have requested a meeting with Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to discuss the reasons why the government is targeting agriculture workers.

He'll probably be sympathetic to their "plight"; the last link has a quote from him verging on him supporting declaring New York state to be a sanctuary for illegal aliens.

Previously in this long series: Crops rotting in the fields... enforcing immigration laws to blame?

Posted to Immigration_piipps at October 10, 2006 05:38 AM

Comments

And BTW, isn't employing illegals a crime?

Posted by: eh at October 10, 2006 09:08 AM

It's a dirty job and we stand next to them, working together, and then to see these people chased, you feel like it's Germany all over again," she said.

Watching those she works with every day get taken away is like having a death in the family, Torrey added...
Here we have a perfect example of how greed and leftist ideology intersect. Torrey here implicitly endorses the leftist concept that borders and citizenship-at least in affluent countries in Europe or ruled by people of European descent - are equivalent to fascist totalitarianism. The stupid and the disingenuous tend to characterize organizations like the US Chamber of Commerce and hustlers like Grover Norquist as "conservative", but it should be obvious that the lust for money is something quite apart from having a political belief system.

Posted by: perroazul del norte at October 10, 2006 12:21 PM

Remember: donate and support the organization which is helping immigrants cross our border...

http://www.humaneborders.org/

Posted by: Lil Jimmy at October 10, 2006 03:54 PM

the mexican politcal race population is nothing but a tool for the death of all human and civil rights and will use the bull about this nation being a Nazi State to make it into mexico.
if the third world people AND ITS GOVERNMENTS are so great at work AND RIGHTS OF PEOPLE why isn't the third world rich? and free? let us start to fight for the rights we love so much, the third worlds people and its leaders here and in places like mexico want us dead as a people, the enemy is in front of you what do you do?

Posted by: Fred Dawes at October 10, 2006 09:49 PM