Thread by @juliettekayyem

Thread: There is a role for workplace enforcement policies to protect from unscrupulous and abusive employers. But let’s be clear here: ICE didn’t arrest the employers in this case and it surely knew that it was the first day of school and kids would be abandoned. #ICEraids 1/

In my experience, worksite enforcement is an essential tool because it’s the employers who are morally culpable. They take advantage of undocumented workers in terms of wages, hours, work conditions and abuse (esp against the women). Hello Trump resorts. 2/

So not arresting the employers here is telling. Do we really think that these employers were able to hire they many undocumenteds without being part of a larger scheme to feed their workforce needs? Come on. 3/

As for kids, we would generally have a sense of who would be abandoned. We had waivers for single mothers or a parent if both arrested. Many could apply for special visas to keep family intact. But we would never have been surprised by an enforcement efforts impact on a family.4/

I say all this because the Trump WH and DHS have a tendency to pretend they alone face cases of first impression, as they did with families arriving at the border. We’ve seen it all before and a government committed to sound policy would not have done it this way. 5/

I know I can sound tough on enforcement efforts and it’s hard to see these days why not just throw it all out. But my point here is that there has been much done in the past to make such difficult actions less so in order to arrest these employers. That’s not what this is. 6/6