ICEberg

is mostly hidden

Two days ago, I posted a newly unsealed federal indictment that alleges the owners of a chain of restaurants have been trafficking workers into the country to capture a cheap and highly exploitable labor pool that can be worked long hours for abysmal pay. My goal was to show that the popular Orange Man Bad narrative about cruelty and xenophobia in the enforcement of immigration laws is maybe missing some details, as the federal immigration agencies break up behaviors that are themselves cruel and exploitative. The mean orange fascist’s mean bigot ICE agents are…taking action against some fairly dark activities. We have some evidence that the bad guys in narrative are the good guys in practice.

So here’s another one:

Patel Et Al Indictment

3.45MB ∙ PDF file

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Federal prosecutors allege that the owner of a chain of fast food restaurants and convenience stores in Louisiana bought and sold visas under a special program for the victims of crime, dummying up a set of immigrant “crime victims” by paying local cops to write fake crime reports. A bunch of the people who have been arrested by federal immigration cops are police chiefs:

So the trafficking of human beings stands alongside the corruption of communities, the dirtying of local authority, and a bunch of hidden darkness in towns all over the country. Exploitation, official dishonesty, fake crime for pay, human beings trafficked across borders.

Consider the possibility that something is going on that isn’t, as the legacy media suggests, far-right bigots being mean to wonderful brown people. The signals are becoming interesting. Illegal immigrants are an exploitable and vulnerable population, and people exploit them. The enforcement of immigration laws drains a deep well of cruelty. Keep watching.