Last week, ICE officials raided Michael Bianco Inc. in New Bedford, Mass—a company which specializes in the manufacturing of high-end leather goods such as Coach label handbags and accessories.

After securing several multi-million dollar military contracts for vests, boots, etc. the Michael Bianco company realized they needed more workers to keep up with demand—specifically, they needed more cheap labor by the way of illegal immigrants.

Greedy, greedy, greedy pigs.

Anyhow, a majority of the illegal immigrants busted were women—of course. Several were pregnant and most had small children. This unfortunately always seems to be the case when it comes to ICE raids.

Before I get into that let me say this: the Michael Bianco Company is uniquely pathetic and nasty. These people would actually impose fines against their workers if they committed such offenses as taking to long in the bathroom or (gasp!) talking while they worked.

The fines ranged anywhere from $20 to $50 per offense and increased with each subsequent offense. Good grief! Regardless of the immigration status held by their employees, these jerks should be shut down for sheer cruelty.

These kinds of employment practices should never, never be found in America! Third-world countries or maybe Hell but not America!

In any event, hundreds of illegal alien employees are now being held pending deportation proceedings although a handful of pregnant employees were released for humanitarian reasons.

The question remains: What do we do with the kids?

Some are technically American citizens having been born here and others are too young to be separated from their mama’s.

Already, there are lawyers galore planning their appeals to keep these women (and men) here in the States so as not to separate them from their children. While these proceedings are pending, the kids are either left with relatives or left as wards of the state.

Yes, this is sad. Yes, nobody wants to see these families torn apart.

BUT…who is to blame?

The MSM would have us believe the American immigration system is to blame. The MSM paints these ICE officials as spiteful, unfeeling agents who have nothing better to do than to rip apart families.

The fact of the matter is, these illegal immigrants knew the risks when they snuck into the United States and unlawfully took jobs, rented homes etc.

The fact of the matter is, they don’t have to be separated from their families if they take them with them when they return to their country of origin—most of the illegal immigrants coming from Mexico and Central America.

Even if some of these kids are technically American citizens, they belong with their parents—in Mexico.

If immigration advocates want to avoid traumatic situations such as these, they need to stop immigrants from coming here illegally in the first place rather than crying foul when we enforce our laws.

Jason Rosenbaum writes in the Columbia Tribune:

JEFFERSON CITY - Gov. Matt Blunt has canceled a state contract of a janitorial company accused of employing illegal aliens.

Immigration officials detained about 25 employees of Oklahoma-based Sam’s Janitorial Services yesterday in the state capital. The company has contracts to clean nine buildings across the state, including one in Columbia.

“We want to keep our tax dollars from being used to pay illegal aliens,” Blunt said during a rare news conference last night.

Vernon Morris, a housekeeping manager for the Division of Facility Management, Construction and Design, tipped off Capitol Police officers after he noticed discrepancies in contract staff’s documents.

It is nice to finally see some visible action being taken in this area. What was also of special interest to VDARE.COM readers is the mention of some state legislation under consideration:

Illegal immigration has been a notable topic this session in the Missouri General Assembly. State Sen. Chris Koster, R-Harrisonville, and state Sen. Tim Green, D-St. Louis County, unleashed a comprehensive bill that would force employers to sign up with a federal service that tracks the immigration status of potential workers.

The legislation would also ban illegal aliens from attending Missouri’s public colleges and would bar landlords from renting to illegal aliens. The bill has yet to be heard in committee.

I expect we will see considerable state action in this area the next few years-doing the job the federal government refuses to do.

Joanne Jacobs has post called Teachers vs. JROTC where she writes

At a 5,000-student, nearly all Latino high school in Los Angeles, the Junior ROTC program has lost nearly half its cadets in recent years, reports the LA Times. Some Roosevelt High teachers are trying to get the program dropped.

“Teacher Gillian Russom said (color guard drill) training instills the wrong values: following orders, dressing the same and relying on rote memorization rather than critical thinking. “That’s necessary for a successful military, but does it create the kind of citizens we want?”

Presumably she opposes the marching band too.

Of course, the reason the teachers are doing this is because, broadly speaking, they’re hippies–they liked the idea of the US losing Vietnam War, they’d like the idea of the US losing this one, too.

According to the LA Times,

Many teachers are openly hostile toward JROTC, Jesse said, and some wear T-shirts that say “A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind.”

This is because they aren’t reading Pat Buchanan, who could explain that under the Bush Administration, the military is still underfunded, and that the schools are overfunded:

Under George W. Bush, U.S. Department of Education funding has risen 92 percent in six years, from $35.5 billion in 2001 to $68 billion in 2007. Sinking test scores are what we have to show for it.

Also, the teachers and local activists feel that it’s wrong for minorities to fight for the United States. In fact, that’s not an issue at this “nearly all Latino” high school, and that’s the most striking thing about this article:

Harrington said few of his Roosevelt students join the armed services. Only 5% of his cadets would even qualify to enlist, he said, because the rest are in the country illegally, couldn’t pass the military aptitude test, are in trouble with the law or are overweight.

“This is the worst school on the planet for a recruiter to come and think they will be successful,” he said, adding that only three Roosevelt cadets in three years have enlisted out of high school. [Junior ROTC takes a hit in L.A. |At Roosevelt High, a coalition of teachers and students works to end the program, and its numbers are dropping, By Sonia Nazario, LA Times, February 19, 2007 ]

The antiwar types are against kids learning to shoot air rifles, for the usual anti-gun reasons:

Teachers who oppose JROTC are also dismayed that despite a zero-tolerance policy on weapons, 10 Los Angeles high schools, including Roosevelt, have JROTC firing ranges.

I’m all for kids learning marksmanship and gun safety–but I’m not sure if a marksmanship program for kids who are illegal aliens or are in trouble with the law is a good idea.