Here, thanks to blulitespecial, is an earlier story that sheds more light on how the Texas Panhandle refugee population is booming thanks to local meat packing plants. See my post yesterday on nearby Amarillo.
First, the Dept. of Homeland Security raided local plants and removed illegal workers. Note when you read this article about Cactus, TX, the local government is apparently annoyed at the US government for cracking down on the local illegals.
Sixteen months ago, federal agents swept into the Panhandle town of Cactus, Texas, in Moore County as part of a massive raid of Swift & Co. beef processing plants across the country. They arrested 297 workers on immigration violations and sent hundreds more fleeing the community for fear of more raids.
“Things were a little rocky in the short-term, but the upheaval of the raids hasn’t hurt us financially,” Mr. DiPiazza [city manager] said. “Swift aggressively brought in new workers and had the plant working to capacity within months.”
But, not to fear, the meatpackers and the city had a solution, just bring in refugees.
But with the new workers has come a fresh set of challenges.
Swift’s new owners, a Brazilian firm, recruited a different set of foreign workers to fill the gaps left by the Mexican and Central American workers caught up in the ICE raid in December 2006. This time, they hired refugees brought into the U.S. on a special visa.
As for the extra costs to the schools, healthcare etc. created by the influx of refugee workers, let the federal taxpayers pay the bill.
The county would like some federal help in paying for the extra costs to the schools, hospitals and police, Mr. Rhoades [Moore County Judge] said. But “we don’t have a solution yet,” he said. “We’ll just have to pay attention to the details and deal with it. It’s just another test.”
So, meatpackers get cheap labor (they don’t have to pay good wages demanded by American workers), and the taxpayer foots all the extra welfare bills. What a racket and it’s aided and abetted by church volags. ‘Volag’ is short for ‘voluntary agency’, but they are anything but voluntary because they too are paid by you.