To the editor:

I fell a little behind in reading The Journal, and finally read the August 11 issue which headlined the ICE arrests, some of which involved Christensen Farms Sleepy Eye Campus. I must say I was somewhat confused by the Thumbs Up/Down section of the editorial page which gave a Thumbs Down to the ICE raid. I’m not really sure if your Thumbs Down is for ICE conducting the raid in the first place, or that such a fine and upstanding “important local employer” should be caught up in the unfortunate investigation.

Christensen Farms seems to try to brush off all this nastiness and point the finger of blame to their “third party vendor.” Really? Why do you suppose companies hire “third party vendors” in the first place? They hire these companies so they can have something called “plausible deniability.” Plausible deniability allows companies like these to wash their hands when (not if) something like this happens. Do you suppose management teams at companies like these EVER suspect the large amount of employees at their various locations from such a diverse ethnic background just might have immigration issues? Oh no, surely not (wink, wink). The “third party vendor” is usually fired, only to be replaced by, (you guessed it) yet another third party vendor. And so it goes.

Your Thumbs Down opinion last sentence seems to give Christensen Farms the ultimate “get out of jail free card.” “For a company as large and as widespread as Christensen Farms, which relies heavily on contractors, it’s hard to keep track of all of them.” How generous of The Journal. Apparently size does matter.

Paul Platz

Lafayette