Some people believe that the current wave of raids on plants throughout the country seeking illegal immigrants to deport will open up high paying jobs for U.S. citizens. This is wishful thinking, and it is not only not true but the reverse of the truth.

This morning's CHARLOTTE OBSERVER carries a story by Franco Ordonez on the effect of immigrant workers or raids carried out at Raeford Farms.([link edited for length].). The House of Reford Farms is a poultry processing company with headquaters in Raeford, North Carolina which promotes itself as having the most complete line of products in the poultry processing business ([link edited for length]). In response to the story, Raeford Farms issued a press release([link edited for length] ) saying that some employees had been arrested at their homes but that no plants had been raided. The arrests had been made after Raeford Farms had turned over the I-9 forms of its employees and the ICE found that some of the documents presented at the time the employees filled out the form were either fraudulent or forged. The company explains that it can only hire people who apply for jobs and it is limited by federal law in the steps it can take to verify immigration status. A poultry processing plant is not the most pleasant place to work and the wages aren't noticeably generous, so in recent years most of the job applications have been from hispanics.

Mr. Ordonez bases his article on interviews with named immigrant workers at Raeford Farms West Columbia (S.C.) plant. He does not say if the interviewees are legally in this country, but if they are not, he is certainly targetting them for the ICE. The workers describe a plant with lowered morale, increased absenteeism and a higher turnover in the labor force.

Beyond the personal, Ordonez notes some of the economic effects of the arrest of immigrant workers and the resulting lowering of morale. Production is down five percent, this means productivity is down and that means higher prices for the products that are being produced. A second economic effect is the increase in the use of inmate labor. In the last six months nonviolent offenders from the Livesey Correctional Institution and the Campbell pre-release center in Spartanburg have been working at the Greenville and Spartanburg plants of Raeford Farms. Not much increase in the availability of high paying jobs in that.

The money the inmates earn is paid to the institution in which they are incarcerated. The money is used, first of all, to meet a “room and board” charge from the institution. If the prison's sentence includes restitution, the victim has the second call on the money. If restitution is not required ( and “non violent offenders” includes those convicted of victimless crimes) some of the money is placed in a “canteen” account for the prisoner so he can buy food and supplies which the institution sells him at a profit. Any money left is held in by the facility and given to the inmate upon release.

Some of the wishful thinkers may still be pleased if the removal of hispanic workers leads only to a great use of convict labor. “At least,” they may say, “the criminals will be paying for their own upkeep. That's good for the taxpayers”. And it sounds good if you don't remember how legislatures and bureaucracies operate.

Of course, Raeford Farms could attract a large number of applicants with impeccable I.D.s by paying their workers more. People are willing to take unpleasant jobs if they receive more pay. But the companiy does not want to do this because it would raise the cost of production and cut into profit or drive up prices. If they lower their profit, they drive away investors. If they raise prices they drive away customers and, if their example is followed, increase inflation.

If there is a high demand for inmate labor, the state legislatures will see an opportunity to increase state revenues by increasing the number of inmates. There is already a drive in Congress and in the state legislatures to criminalize individual act which harm no one but violate the drive for conformity (which the politicians laughably refer to as diversity). The number of victimless crimes will be increased–think of the proposals to outlaw smoking in the open air. Those victimless and non violent crimes which already carry punishment will have a jail sentence added to any fine, and those which already call for incarceration will have the term extended.

All of this, of course, will add to the overcrowding of our already overcrowded prison facilities. So the department of corrections will demand an increasing number of increasingly large facilities. The legislators will go to the people and say that to end the overcrowding they must either raise taxes or start releasing the most violent criminals before their sentence is up. (It is hard to rent an axe murderer to a factory owner.

And I have to admit that the construction of the new jails and prisons means work in the construction industry. Here at last are the high paying jobs you expected. And, even better, the more abundant and larger “correctional facilities” will demand more guards.

But before starting down this path we should remember a lesson from the Afican Chiefs who sold a few unwanted prisoners of war to some European sea captains. Once you start the slave trade you are selling for trinkets the freedom not just of others but of yourselves and your children