Let us in or Pay us $50,000 to Go Home
Liberals, well meaning folks, just a bit stupid and unaware of human nature. Their pet causes sometimes test their naivity as happened in Tijuana last week when two groups of “migrants” marched on the U.S. Consulate demanding to be allowed into the United States or be paid $50,000 to go home. Now we all realize that the Central American region is a low IQ region but really, do these people really think another country is just going to let them walk in or pay them to go home?
The reality is that the organizers of the caravan sold some guible people some snake oil. Come with us and we will force our way into the U.S.. The “migrants” of course blame the U.S. for problems in their home country, saying we interfered back in theday but the reality it a combinatoin of low IQ population, Catholic Church influence, and their history being ruled by Spain. Think about that, name a single country that Spain once had as a colony that isn't a basket case?
If that wasn't enough, one of the two groups was asking Trump to remove the Honduran president from office... Make up your damn mind please. And they gave Trump a 72 hour deadline to respond. Okay....or what?
The “migrants” frayed nerves and solidarity in Mexico once they slammed up against the U.S. Border in Tijuana. The locals weren't happy with thousands of new homeless people trashing their city and drawing attentoin to their area of the border and getting the security heightened. Kind of tough for the ones already waiting to apply for asylum or trying to sneak across the border. Then the “migrants” started breaking into houses and getting into fights with the locals. Around 3500 Central Americans are still camped out in the area with another 2500 having accepted Mexican amnesty and around one thousand that have voluntarily returned home or were deported for crimes.
A Glimpse Behind the Curtain of TEEM and CAAIR's Labor Camps
I gotta say, this idea of putting crimainls to work instead of sending them to prison isn't all bad, but it isn't all good either. TEEM, ran by former Speaker Chris Steele has a similar program but the one called CAAIR has been in the news due to a couple of court cases so there is plenty of info out on that program.
The CAAIR group is a “non profit” supposedly set up to provide an alternative to prison used by the court system to attempt to get men back on track instead of incarcerating them. In reality, it is a labor camp ran by an employee of a big chicken processor and she and her husband are making six figures of what is basically slave labor. The 200 man dormitory is up in Josh West's House District and it started with a former meth addict's idea of using slave labor to fund his “program” to treat mental patients and drug addicts.
Around 300 men a year are sent to the program, mostly poor white men who have committed crimes and told it was prison or a diversion program. The Christian Alcoholics & Addicts in Recovery program takes the men in for one year, sent by courts in Oklahoma and neighboring states. The program takes advantage of a state law passed in the eighties but the catch is that the programs are supposed to have certified counslers and provide substance abuse treatment. The shortage of qualified programs led to private programs being set up and the judges ignore the law and send the non violent criminals anyway.
In all, it is a good idea. N need for these people to be taking up a $40,000 a year prison cell. Put them to work and make it uncomfortable as hell so they won't want to come back. Their labor is sold to businesses and the proceeds fund the programs as well as feeding the prisoner and housing him.
CAAIR was started by a chicken company employee that was having problems staffing a night shift at a chicken processiong plant. Simmons Foods, a billion dollar company, uses the workers on the processing line or making pet food.. It is industrial work, dirty and dangerous, and the managers have the threat of prison to force workers to show up and perform. There are other programs like this like the Carver Center in Oklahoma City where a portion of the pay is banked for the prisoner for when they get out of the halfway house.
Our Constitution does allow slavery for prisoners but the problem that these programs are running up against is that some of the men are on deferred or suspended sentences. That is problematic of course as the prisoner certainly committed a crime and was sent to the program instead of going to prison. If their case is dismissed in the future that is a side benefit that doesn't mean they weren't convicted at some point.
CAAIR doesn't use counslers, it uses religion and hard work to straighten out men that are going down the wrong road. Probably more effective than sitting in a circle confessing crap. The ACLU doesn't like the program, the men are forced to work in a way, either that or back to prison so there is some choice involved.. In return they get a bunk bed, something to eat, and not a lot else. Sounds a lot like the working poor throughout most of recorded history.
Janet Wilkerson was a V.P. Of Human Resources for Petersons Farms and charged with finding workers for the overnight shift. Long hours, little pay, and nasty working conditions meant they were cronically understaffed. Initially a convicted felon running a similar program was involved but eventually Wilkerson cut the guy out of the loop and saved a quarter million dollars a year that he was raking in. From the company's perspective it was a sweet deal, no workers comp insurance, payroll tax, or medical care. They paid $9.25 per hour to CAAIR, funding salary for the woman and her husband to the tune of $168,000 a year in addition to her regular job with Petersons Farms.
When workers would get injured they were sent back to CAAIR for medical care, minimal at best but once again we are talking about prisoners and life ought not to be too rosy for convicts. Given that these are mostly people that haven't worked hard at a job there will be more than a little scamming going on as happens on any worksite where workers do try to fake injuries or fake symptoms to get some time off with pay. And those of us that work for ourselves know that just because you are injured doesn't mean the building lease is any less or that the work will get done on its own, working when injured is part and parcel for most small businessmen or craftsmen. Perhaps being told back to work or back to prison isn't all bad.
Much is made of the fact that the drug addicts aren't coddled with counslers and medications. By the time they make it to the work camp they have dried out and already gone through the withdrawal from the drugs. The prisoners have no choice but to behave, no cell phones, no money, kind of hard to get in trouble and a long shift at work makes them tired. About 25% of the prisoners complete the programs, the rest are kicked back to the county jails and state prisons. That isn't a bad rate considering these people aren't ready to quit their bad behaviour but are being forced to do so. The prisoners get a structured life, learn to show up and work a job, kind of like the rest of us that pay the taxes that keep things running.
There are problems with the way the programs are ran. Like Wilkerson and her husband drawing down six figures in salary. Injured workers getting sub standard medical care, even workers comp settlements being kept by the program. Mentally unstable prisoners are being used and the medication that can keep them functional is not allowed by the Christian program at CAAIR with predictable results. Yet where else to send these people after Terry White gutted the insane asylums in Oklahoma?
Stories about these type of programs are full of sob stories but again we are talking about convicts who have no right to expect anything more than basic emergency care while in prison. They are being punished for a crime, if they suffer and pay a price so much the better if they learn from it and straighten out. These people come in as dysfunctional people and if 25% of them complete the program and straighten their lives out that is a good outcome.
Lawsuits have been filed in Oklahoma and Arkansas, claiming human trafficking and labor law violations. Both the programs and the businesses that employ the convicts were sued.
In the end, criminals are off the street and paying a price for their crimes. Tax dollars aren't being used, freeing up money for the violent criminals. The liberals are screaming about the forced labor but the prisoners voluntarily comitt to the program and are free to return to prison at any time. Meanwhile the soft on crime liberals are screaming at the thought of the convicts having to work, that itself is a nice side benefit, along with the quarter of the convicts that make it through the one year program and learn that crime doesn't pay.
