By Matthew Vadum ——Bio and Archives--August 19, 2008
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It was as if a tornado had whipped through the town or a flood had swallowed up houses. A disaster. Man-made, but a disaster all the same. Three months after the raid, that’s how many in Postville describe the events of May 12. Lives disrupted. People pushed out of jobs and homes. Children separated from parents. Businesses verging towards collapse. And as in any small town swept by disaster, the community quickly banded together to help the victims.But they’re not victims. It seems silly to have to belabor the obvious point that the illegal immigrants arrested were (alleged) lawbreakers. If their family members who remain at large are present in the U.S. illegally, then they too are not victims: they’re lawbreakers. And the businesses in the town that hired the illegal immigrants are also not victims: they’re lawbreakers as well.
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Matthew Vadum, matthewvadum.blogspot.com, is an investigative reporter.
His new book Subversion Inc. can be bought at Amazon.com (US), Amazon.ca (Canada)
Visit the Subversion Inc. Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter.