A Curiosity in Nebraska

In Nebraska - part of the American heartland - a labor dispute is (or should be) raising eyebrows and provoking serious questions:

Grand Island, Neb. - Nearly 100 Muslim workers have quit their jobs at a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant because their prayer times weren't accommodated.

"They kind of issued the company an ultimatum," said Dan Hoppes, president of Local 22 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

"They went in before the shift started (Monday) and said that they'd go unless they could pray when they needed to," Hoppes said today.

Sean McHugh, a spokesman for Swift at its Greeley headquarters, said breaks are governed by a labor contract and that all employees are told about them during orientation for all new workers.

"The company has a history of making reasonable accommodations for legitimate religious practices," he said Monday. "Swift has experienced no issues related to religious accommodations in recent years.

Hoppes said he believes the workers, who he said were Somali immigrants, had been offered jobs at a Kansas plant that would give them time off for prayer and make other accommodations for their religion. He didn't know the name of the company.

The pertinent question about this news item is not whether Swift & Co. should have given the workers time off for their prayers or not, nor is it whether the union should have written provisions for such things into its contract. The most important question is: what are 100 Somali-born Muslims doing in Grand Island, Nebraska? How did they get there? If they are in the U.S. illegally, it demonstrates the absolute failure of the Bush administration (and its predecessors) to enforce immigration laws and defend the nation's borders. If they were admitted to the U.S. legally, it demonstrates the insanity of Congress and the immigration laws it passes.

Were the American people ever asked if they wanted to admit immigrants from Somalia? Were they asked if they wanted to radically alter the nation's demographic breakdown? Were they asked, post 9/11, if they wanted more Muslims to immigrate to America? Of course not. Because the liars and frauds that comprise the elite in Washington - and occupy the White House and Congress - know that the American people want no such thing and would issue a resounding "NO!" were they every explicitly consulted. That is why all immigration legislation is negotiated in "closed door" sessions and with "backroom wrangling" - to keep the facts and the consequences from the American people. All of which brings up the even more pertinent question: if the American people don't want their country radically altered by mass immigration, why does the Washington elite want it so very badly?