Nov 10 2008
Raid on House of Raeford
My local paper had an article about a police raid on the House of Raeford plant in Greenville, SC. The raid resulted in the arrest of 33 immigrant workers, six of which were under-aged. We are facing our scariest financial crisis. People are losing jobs left and right. Considering our circumstances, reading this article made me angry. I am not angry that illegal immigrants were working at the plant. I am angry that the company was taking advantage of children; making them do jobs that were dangerous and hazardous.
I often hear people make disparaging remarks about “those people stealing our jobs and they can’t even speak the language”. When I hear such comments, I become upset with the speaker because eight out of ten times the job they refer to is one they would never consider doing.
As I said, the fact that 331 immigrants worked in the House of Raeford plant is not what evoked the angry emotion when reading the article. The reality that six of those immigrants were children did. The fact that a company would take such a precious commodity (employment) and exploit children with it, rather than use it to empower adults to provide for their children makes me angry.
House of Raeford hides behind the law with statements that it is required to accept documents that appear to be legitimate. Many former employees were quoted as affirming that the under-aged employees clearly looked to young to work in the plant.
I found it ironic that the company spokesperson was quoted as saying “Also, as we all know, not everyone tells the truth all the time”. When the House of Raeford contends that it did not knowingly hire illegal under-aged workers, I feel certain it is one of the times when truth decided to take a vacation.
Americans born and bred, as well as those who flee to our borders for the elusive American dream are desperately seeking employment. Surely there are enough of those people that we don’t have to exploit children and put their lives at risk by employing them to perform dangerous and hazardous jobs.
