New INS operation targets Nebraska meat industry

National Catholic Reporter, Jan 22, 1999 by Teresa Malcolm

"Once you begin to implement those laws, the incentive for at least a portion of native workers to accept jobs in those plants improves," she said.

In addition to more rigorous enforcement by the Department of Labor, critics say the INS should focus its efforts on criminal activity such as drug-smuggling rather than targeting working people. According to Mumgaard, the Justice Department has handed down guidelines to the INS, calling on it "to turn the focus of enforcement to raids involving immigrant smuggling, human rights abuses and more egregious violations."

Operation Vanguard is not in keeping with those priorities, he said. "Uprooting workers and families who may have been here for years is, arguably, an enforcement obligation," Mumgaard said. "It is hardly a priority."

By TERESA MALCOLM NCR Staff Omaha, Neb.