What to make of the nearly back-to-back raids at meat plants in Tennessee and Ohio by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)?

Let's set aside, for a moment, the discussion of the role of undocumented workers in an industry desperate for warm bodies to keep up with demand. They are here illegally, the law says they go back home.

Let's also take the available information at face value: First, that the agency had ample reason to look into the doings at Southeastern Provision, according to an affadavit stating that the company is suspected of evading taxes, filing false tax returns and illegally hiring immigrants into the country. Local bank employees allegedly noticed that the company was frequently withdrawing large amounts of cash, alleged to be nearly $25 million going back to 2008.

(Just because it's in an affadavit doesn't mean it's true. The document that drove the 2008 Agriprocessors raid in Postville was full of allegations by "witnesses" that were never substantiated. A meth lab? Really?)

Let's also take at face value that Ohio's Fresh Mark, raided last week, was the first in Ohio to partner with the agency in the voluntary ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) program. Participating companies must meet employment verification policies to ensure a lawful workforce, among other IMAGE program standards. Fresh Mark's participation in the program should have been far more effective protection against a surprise ICE raid than it was.

These raids set off a firestorm of debate over immigration and employment within the industry. From the perspective of those outside the industry — which is almost everybody — all meat processors look shady. But what are a company's options, if participating in the government's own programs isn't a guarantee?

No database as large and far-flung as E-verify or even the IMAGE program is going to be foolproof. But if companies are going to put the time and investment into participating, there ought to be an alternative to the headline-grabbing raids by gun-toting federal officers.

i thought it strange, actually, to read the comments under our news coverage of the Ohio raid. They centered on the need to protect our borders at any cost and on welfare reform to get under- and unemployed American workers into the plants, much like the comments that followed our reports on the raid at Southeastern Provision. Nobody mentioned Fresh Mark's efforts to remain on the right side of immigration law.

I read the reports and was concerned about federal overreach, a zealous pursuit of immigration enforcement at the expense of fair treatment of employers.

What did you read?

A tale of two ICE raids

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