OPINION: Obama's Guitar Raid

President Obama says it’s a waste of manpower to deport illegal aliens, unless they’ve committed some other crime.

So why did Obama’s Justice Department conduct raids on the Gibson Guitar factory—twice—not because of illegal workers, but because they suspect Gibson is using illegal wood. The factory was temporarily shut down and workers sent home.

The guitar-maker is outraged. The wood involved comes from India, and the federal bureaucrats seem to be enforcing an unclear India law that protects endangered wood. But the company says it scrupulously follows environmental laws.

Gibson’s CEO has another theory—they make guitars in Tennessee, a right-to-work state, while its competitors do not. He thinks the Obama Administration is going after companies that are not unionized.
Here’s the final insult—the Obama bureaucrats making the raids refuse to explain them—not to the public and not even to the company.

From The Heritage Foundation, I’m Ernest Istook.

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