A reliable reason to celebrate

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By Times Staff | Sunday, August 31, 2008 11:16 PM CDT | () comments

Today’s celebration of the American worker arrives at a time that’s tough to celebrate.

Postville, Iowa, just lost its ignoble crown as the site of the largest immigration raid in U.S. history. Immigration and Customs Enforcement found an even bigger offender in Laurel, Miss. This time, it wasn’t a slaughterhouse. Howard Industries is a manufacturing plant and the recipient of a $31.5 million state and local government incentive plan that created all of those jobs given to Central and South American undocumented workers.

The scope of the raid suggests immigration no longer is about jobs Americans won’t take. It’s about jobs in America never intended for those who live here. Associated Press accounts documented visible tension between Howard Industries’ legal and illegal workers, including scattered applause when ICE agents began the roundup.

With the heavy public investment in Howard Industries, local authorities couldn’t afford to crack down on the company even if it wanted to. In effect, state government is a partner in this crime.

Meanwhile, Postville’s Agriprocessors Inc. didn’t replace its seized work force by raising wages and recruiting in the U.S. Instead, overseas recruiters in the Pacific Island nation of Paulau are pitching offers to take those Iowa jobs.

In the western Iowa town of Perry, the city council shuddered at the news of another big immigration raid. Mayor Viivi Shirley told the Associated Press her first thought after the Postville raid was, “Thank God it wasn’t Perry.” Perry, like many of our Quad-City region communities, is the home of a meatpacking plant operated mainly by immigrants. Those communities rely on those plants to follow the law. How many, like Mayor Shirley, wonder if theirs will be the next town shut down by federal agents enforcing immigration law?

These are problems no wall alone can solve.

One bright spot for labor this day might be our unemployment rate, higher than a year ago, but comparatively low statewide. In our community, the latest unemployment figures show the Quad-Cities with the lowest of Illinois 12 metro areas at 5.1 percent. It’s a full point higher than last year, but far below the state’s highest rate of 9 percent in Rockford. Our community’s Iowa-side unemployment rate of 3.9 percent is well below 9 percent reported in Winnebago County and 7.2 percent in Lee County.

It is in this context we celebrate Deere & Co.’s intention to add 120 new jobs and expand its Milan distribution parts center. The announcement last month generated modest headlines simply because growth at Deere & Co. isn’t new. It’s been happening steadily and worldwide. While immigration raids may make other companies and communities nervous, Deere enjoys a well-earned reputation as a quality workplace and responsible community member.

Our community’s diversifying economy seems to be shielding us from the employment trends elsewhere. Yet it is our mainstay, agricultural equipment manufacturing, that is providing good-paying, American jobs.

For Americans.