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Jail for Businessmen, a Pass for Torturers

Jan 31 2009

Jail for Businessmen, a Pass for Torturers

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Society + Culture

By MWC News

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Jail for Businessmen, a Pass for Torturers
by Jacob G. Hornberger

Francesco Insolia must soon report to a federal penitentiary to begin serving a one-year sentence. His crime? Hiring illegal aliens from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in his leather-goods company in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He has also been ordered to pay $1 million to the federal government.

Meanwhile, if it turns out that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld. Alberto Gonzalez, John Yoo, and other high U.S. officials violated laws against torture and illegal wiretaps, there are people arguing that the Justice Department should not prosecute them because they were high government officials who meant well.

Something definitely seems wrong with this picture. After all, let’s compare the Insolia’s “crime” and the crimes that Bush and his cohorts allegedly committed.

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Insolia’s “crime” involved no initiation of force against another human being. The relationship that he had with those workers was entirely consensual. Insolia and the workers voluntarily entered into the employment relationship because they both benefited from it. Moreover, Insolia and the workers were producing a product that presumably benefitted people. Otherwise, he would have gone out of business. So, here you have three different groups of people who were benefiting from a consensual economic transaction — the employer, the workers, and consumers.

On the other hand, no one can argue that the crimes that Bush, Cheney, and other U.S. officials allegedly committed involve consensual acts. Torture involves the initiation of force against another human being and oftentimes results in death, injury, or severe psychological damage. Wiretapping involves the intrusion into a person’s most private affairs. Since these acts involve direct infringements on the rights of others, there is good reason that the law makes them criminal offenses.

Something is dreadfully wrong with a nation in which good people like Francesco Insolia are being punished for engaging in peaceful, consensual, and beneficial economic relationships with others while high government officials who allegedly violate criminal laws against acts of violence are given a free pass.

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

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Comments (2)

1. 01-02-2009 05:38

Mr. Hornberger's piece, "Jail for Businessmen, Pass for Torturers", seems intended more as a vehicle for condemning the pass given George Bush and his administration than to convey outrage at or sympathy for the prosecution of Mr. Insolia.

Time will tell whether Mr. Bush and his subordinates will in fact receive a pass. Attempting to justify Mr. Insolia's decision to break the law, for a profit, is unwarranted and unwise. Shall we grant all law-breakers immunity because all are not prosecuted?

The knowing employment of illegal aliens is a complex issue. Mr. Hornberger ignores these complexities in his use of the subject as a means to his end. In doing so, he does an injustice to us all.

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jmhjmd@aol.comNOSPAM! ">James M. Hamilton

2. 03-02-2009 07:40

Finally a True Stance

There is no doubt that the article compares the serious crimes of the government against a man now termed as a criminal and sentenced to prison solely because that same government has established "laws" even they are unsure of on the subject of immigration and have not made these "laws" fool-proof. When hiring employees in this country, the employer must follow The Employer Handbook. This handbook states that a prospective employee must supply reasonable evidence in the form of a personable i.d. (license, green card, etc. Direct quote from handbook: Anti-Discrimination Provisions "An employer cannot refuse to honor documents which on their face reasonably appear to be genuine and to relate to the person presenting them. The new law makes these actions unfair immigration-related employment practices." Mr. Insolia's lawyer stated that the company had on file every employees photocopied i.d. and social security card for the last 20 years.

It is incredibly unjust and ridiculous to put an employer in this situation! They must, by law, accept the identification if it appears genuine and the photo relates the person presenting the documents or they are discriminating against the person. But if they do this, and the documents are fabricated, they can be sent to prison. Looks like a gigantic loop-hole to me and anyone with reason. Is that justice, or did they simply make Insolia out to be the poster boy of Immigration Issues during a time in history where the issue was a political hot-topic? Was he made into a scape goat for an administration that put us to war, put us in debt, and deeply hurt our image on a global scale?

Furthermore, Mr. Insolia's character and the facts of his case were incredibly misconstrued in the media throughout the last 2 years and even after his sentencing. As the presiding Judge stated at Insolia's trial, "Abraham Lincoln would be spinning in his grave over the misuse of the First Amendment by the Prosecution”.

"The Government, should know better!"

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troppassai@gmail.comNOSPAM! ">Tina Smollock

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