Tough Questions for Open-Border Defenders

Gwen Ifil showed what a good, tough interview consists of today on Newshour when she interviewed Mark Lauristan, a defender of illegal aliens sweep up in a raid, as well as Julie Meyers, head of ICE enforcement. The transcript and audio are up now here, the video will be up within a few hours.

GWEN IFILL: But let me ask you this. These family and communities, would you agree that many of them were here illegally and, therefore, working illegally?

MARK LAURITSEN: We don't know that; we don't know what their status was. What I know, as a representative of people that work for a living, is that, if they're employed where there's a collective bargaining agreement, I have a job, and our local unions have a job to represent them, regardless, and that's what the law says. Regardless of any documentation status, I represent them.

GWEN IFILL: So it's up to the company to determine whether these people are working legally or not?

Also this:

There was an example this morning about a victim who was pulled over and was arrested because someone who was working at a Swift plant had been using his Social Security number and got a criminal record under his name. These people have gone out, they've gotten telephone bills under their fake identities, and all sorts of problems.

Check out the whole thing. For more reaction, check out Michelle Malkin's coverage.
UPDATE: My favorite line of the story, "...in Grand Island, Nebraska, local police refused to support the federal raid, fearing their participation would antagonize the Latino community." As a big supporter of local police, I'd have to say this must be a decision by the brass, because real police on the street would never be such damn cowards.