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Posts published in “Day: September 12, 2008”

Standards of proof

Just how politically dangerous are the allegations that Oregon Republican Senator Gordon Smith's frozen food company has employed many illegal immigrant workers isn't totally clear. The charges - in a lengthy article in Willamette Week - that his company has disgorged pollution probably changed few votes. Possibly, the question about the workers is different, since a substantial part of Smith's base is strongly, emotionally, anti-illegal immigrant, and we've already seen some angry responses from that quarter.

That the Smith campaign takes it very seriously could be gauged from the fact that a press release pushing back against the charges is posted on the Smith campaign web site. A non-dangerous allegation probably wouldn't merit that response.

Smith's official response runs this way: “Today’s Willamette Week article is false. It is wholly comprised of unsubstantiated and ridiculous allegations from a liberal tabloid whose purpose is to advance a left-wing agenda rather than the truth. Smith Frozen Foods has fully complied with all laws related to the employment of workers and no amount of speculation or second-hand rumors from disgruntled parties can change that. Willamette Week got one thing right in the story – Smith Frozen Foods has never been fined for employing illegal immigrants.”

The core of the response is that the "offers literally ZERO evidence of the claim .", but that is problematic. Smith is right that WW didn't prove the allegation in the sense that they could win a criminal conviction in court with what they had. But to say there was no evidence is simply wrong.

Read the article, and you'll find item after item - from workers who talk about illegals, to the accountant who does taxes for illegal in the area - which do effectively make the case, and it adds up to a highly substantial case. Not ironclad, not conclusive, but strong.

From a political standpoint, that may be enough. Any driving around the Tri-Cities/Walla Walla/Pendleton region can't help but notice the high Hispanic population and the large number of workers in businesses where illegal workers often are found. Ask someone in that region - or even well outside it - about the probability that illegal workers were employed at a random food production plant in the area, and you'll probably draw a general assumption that some of them are.

The WW article, politically, amounts to confirmatory evidence of what a lot of people probably have assumed anyway, and it makes it highly public at the worst possible time for Smith.