yaponczyk1
13.12.06, 18:24
Outside a meatpacking plant fence, a frustrated Tony Garcia watched as
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarmed inside to arrest illegal
immigrants suspected in an identity-theft scheme.
"We need help," he yelled. "We need answers."
But most of his questions Tuesday had to wait. No names were released, and
authorities did not say how many people were arrested. There was only the
sight of dozens of workers being taken to law enforcement buses as agents
swept through Swift & Co. plants in six states.
At the Swift plant in Grand Island, Neb., as many as 250 workers from a shift
of more than 600 were detained, local union spokesman Mike Mary told The
Washington Post.
In Colorado, Garcia worried about the schoolchildren whose parents were
arrested at the Swift plant in Greeley.
"Who is going to pick them up?" he asked.
The raids followed a 10-month investigation into illegal immigrants suspected
of buying or stealing other people's identities to secure U.S. jobs. The
scheme may have had hundreds victims, officials said.
Immigration officials last month informed Swift that it would remove
unauthorized workers on Dec. 4, but Swift asked a federal judge to prevent
agents from conducting the raid, arguing it would cause "substantial and
irreparable injury" to its business.
The company estimated a raid would remove up to 40 percent of its 13,000
workers. Greeley-based Swift describes itself as the world's second-largest
meat processor with sales of about $9 billion.
After a closed hearing, a judge on Thursday rejected Swift's request,
clearing the way for Tuesday's raids at the plants in Greeley; Grand Island;
Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.
The six plants represent all of Swift's domestic beef processing capacity and
77 percent of its pork processing capacity.
Advocates of stricter immigration control praised the raids and pointed out
that they targeted people suspected of committing other crimes in addition to
being in the U.S. illegally.
"I'm glad that ICE is enforcing our immigration laws in light of the illegal
immigration crisis we face across the country," Sen. Wayne Allard (news, bio,
voting record), R-Colo., said in a statement.
Others called the raids heavy-handed and criticized the effect on families.
"They are taking mothers and fathers, and we're really concerned about the
children," said the Rev. Clarence Sandoval of St. Thomas Aquinas Roman
Catholic Church in Logan, Utah. "I'm getting calls from mothers saying they
don't know where their husband was taken."
United Food and Commercial International Workers union spokeswoman Jill
Cashen told the Post workers taken from the Worthington, Minn., plant were
bused to South Dakota.
She said Tuesday that attorneys for the union would ask federal judges in all
six states for injunctions to halt the raids.
Mexico's Foreign Relations Department also pledged to ensure that any
Mexicans caught up in the raids have "their human rights fully respected, and
are given all the necessary assistance, orientation and consular protection."
No charges were filed against Swift.
In a written statement, President and CEO Sam Rovit said the company has
never knowingly hired illegal workers and does not condone the practice.
Swift uses a government pilot program to confirm whether Social Security
numbers are valid. Company officials have raised questions about the
program's ability to detect when two people are using the same number.
Immigration agents have also staged immigration raids at poultry plants in
the South. In July 2005, nearly 120 people were arrested at an Arkadelphia,
Ark., facility. Three months ago, agents raided a poultry plant in Stillmore,
Ga., arresting a similar number who worked there or lived in surrounding
counties and busing them to immigration courts in Atlanta, 189 miles away.
