Just Pretend the ICE Raid Didn't Happen

Erica Garman at Living in LoCo went looking for a few more details about the Lansdowne ICE raid. From her inquiries and the comments on the post, two interesting facts emerge.

1. It wasn't a raid so much as a setup:

According to family members of those detained, Lansdowne called a mandatory general staff meeting for Tuesday morning so that even if you were not scheduled to work you needed to be there. Only after the employees arrived did they find out the special guests were ICE. The impression amoung [sic] those families is that Lansdowne preempted a raid in return for a reduction in penalties and fines, a horrific scenario given that they have depended on this labor force since they opened. - lunavalle27 (anonymous)

Perhaps Lansdowne did benefit from the raid. Perhaps they discovered that demand for the Resort's services was down, and they realized they needed to cut costs, and thus staff. What simpler way than having the ICE team come and do it for them? This kills two birds with one stone for Lansdowne. First, it allows them to cut 59 people from the staff rolls, saving hundreds of thousands in costs each year. Second, by going to ICE themselves, perhaps they reduce their fines and risks of investigation an prosecution, which probably pleases owners who do not like legal liability when it no longer makes economic sense to keep underutilized, undocumented migrants on payroll.

2. The powerful and influential would simply prefer this whole unpleasantness just go away:

As I was leaving with my coffee, I spied Board of Supervisor Chairman Scott K. York (I-At Large) dining at a table with a business associate. He was aware of the incident, he said, “but I don’t have any details yet.”

Seems nobody does. - Living in LoCo

If a different set of 59 residents of Loudoun were gathered up and carted away, wouldn't our County Chairman know something about it? What if the Federal Government had gathered and incarcerated 59 homeless citizens for "loitering." Would they be worth caring about? What if it were 59 homeowners who were defaulting on their mortgages? How far up the economic class ladder to 59 people need to go before the powerful in Loudoun start to care to at least find out what happened when they are rounded up and detained? The issue isn't whether the detentions were illegitimate (since they were not). The issue is the fact that the people who should know something are doing everything they can to know nothing.