What's wrong with this picture?

reading THIS was NOT the way to start a beautiful saturday morning...

[Stillmore, Georgia] has become little more than a ghost town since Sept. 1, when federal agents began rounding up illegal immigrants.

[...]

More than 120 illegal immigrants have been loaded onto buses bound for immigration courts in Atlanta, 189 miles away. Hundreds more fled Emanuel County. Residents say many scattered into the woods, camping out for days. They worry some are still hiding without food.

At least one child, born a U.S. citizen, was left behind by his Mexican parents: 2-year-old Victor Perez-Lopez. The toddler's mother, Rosa Lopez, left her son with Julie Rodas when the raids began and fled the state. The boy's father was deported to Mexico.

[...]

The raids came during a fall election season in which immigration is a top issue.

[...]

Since the mid-1990s, Stillmore has grown dependent on the paychecks of Mexican workers who originally came for seasonal farm labor, picking the area's famous Vidalia onions. Many then took year-round jobs at the Crider [poultry] plant, with a workforce of about 900.

Crider President David Purtle said the agents began inspecting the company's employment records in May. They found 700 suspected illegal immigrants, and supervisors handed out letters over the summer ordering them to prove they came to the U.S. legally or be fired. Only about 100 kept their jobs.

[...]

The poultry plant has limped along with half its normal workforce. Crider increased its starting wages by $1 an hour to help recruit new workers.

• the weakest and most vulnerable are the ones being punished
• it's all about politics
• there is no regard for basic human rights
• the plant owners, the ones who violated the prohibition against hiring illegal immigrants, get off scot-free
• the plant may actually have to pay a living wage to attract replacement employees

what in god's name has my country come to that this can happen...?

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