ICE RAIDS MEAT PLANTS

ICE raids plants in ID probe U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who swept through meat-processing plants in six states early Tuesday arrested nearly 1,300 illegal aliens as part of an ongoing investigation into a massive identity-theft conspiracy. The arrests culminated a 10-month ICE investigation known as "Operation Wagon Train" that targeted workers at Swift & Co. plants in Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Iowa and Minnesota. Those arrested included illegal aliens from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Laos, Sudan and Ethiopia. Mrs. Myers said ICE investigators discovered in February that Swift workers had assumed the identities of others to circumvent employment-eligibility screening and uncovered evidence that hundreds of illegal aliens used stolen Social Security cards and other identity documents to gain employment. The illegals, she said, obtained the documents from a variety of document rings and vendors. She described identity theft as the largest and fastest-growing crime in the U.S....
Feds' immigration raids uncover identity theft More than 1,200 people were arrested in meatpacking plants in six states during raids that federal officials said amounted to the largest-ever workplace crackdown on illegal immigration. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday the investigation uncovered a "disturbing front" in the war against illegal immigration, in which illegal immigrants are using the identities of U.S. citizens to obtain jobs. "Violations of our immigration laws and privacy rights often go hand in hand," he said. "Enforcement actions like this one protect the privacy rights of innocent Americans while striking a blow against illegal immigration." The raids at Swift & Co. plants across the country resulted in 1,282 arrests, including 1,217 on immigration charges and 65 on criminal charges, such as identity theft. Chertoff said the investigation is continuing into several groups that may have sold identity documents to illegal immigrants....
ICE accuses Swift & Co. of skirting deportations Federal immigration officials on Wednesday claimed that Swift & Co. allowed hundreds of illegal employees to avoid deportation by firing them before Tuesday's massive raid. But Swift disagreed, saying immigration officials gave permission to the meatpacking company to question employees, some of whom then quit when confronted about their documentation. The dispute came to a head Wednesday, one day after immigration raids at six Swift & Co. plants netted 1,282 suspects. Federal immigration officials claimed the meat processor fired the employees without their permission after Swift learned of the federal probe....
Repurcussions from national raid might cost consumers - Utah A federal raid on a meat processing plant in Hyrum and facilities in five other states hit farmers, ranchers and feedlot operators like a "tsunami," and consumers may be next - paying higher prices for pork and beef. On the morning of the Tuesday raids, J.R. Simplot Livestock Co. in Idaho had eight trucks of cattle ready to be unloaded at the plant. Instead, the cattle had to be taken to a nearby feedlot where the company paid to have them watered and fed. Company President Tom Basabe said he hasn't gotten a bill yet, "but in this business, no costs are minor. And until the Hyrum plant gets back to normal operating capacity, we're not back to normal, either." "I wouldn't call this a ripple; it's more like a tsunami," he said. John Ferry, a rancher and feedlot operator in Brigham City, said if the plant cannot take his 80 cattle on his weekly Friday allotment time, he'll have to tell ranchers to postpone shipping him more. They in turn, will receive less money for the cattle "because when they're ready to go to market, they're ready to go." On Wednesday Swift officials said the six plants have reopened but at reduced production levels. Swift also said any loss of a significant number of employees could adversely affect operations until lost employees are replaced....
Workers hid in cattle pens during raid - CO Swift & Co. workers hid in outdoor cattle pens and nooks and crannies throughout the plant as immigration agents swept through Tuesday rounding up suspected illegal immigrants. "A lot of my friends tried to hide ... some outside where they keep the cattle," worker Jenny Lucero, 32, said in an interview outside the Greeley plant on Wednesday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seized 261 workers at the plant, but Lucero said some workers dodged the roundup. Agents took people who had been working for years, said Basilio Chairez, 40, another worker at the plant. Chairez said his brother was among those cuffed and taken by bus to Denver. His brother is undocumented and was using false ID, he said. "I'm legal, but I got scared too. ICE was here and some people were trying to hide" behind machinery, he said. Agents took those they suspected of being illegal to the company cafeteria. Sergio Rodriguez was taking a break about 8 a.m. near his position on a production line when ICE agents approached. "One guy showed up and said, 'Why are you hiding there?' He put handcuffs on me and I still have the marks," he said, rolling up his left sleeve and pointing to a thin red line on his wrist. Rodriguez, who said he has been in the United States for 27 years, said he didn't have his resident alien card with him. Although his wife brought the document to the plant, she wasn't allowed to give it to him, he said. He said the agents told him they had a warrant for his arrest. He said he was taken to Denver and held until 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and then released. On Wednesday, he was back at work. The mood at the plant was somber, Rodriguez and other workers said....
Children in limbo after raids - Texas Community members believe several hundred children are without their primary guardians following the arrests of a large number of illegal immigrants at the Swift and Co. Cactus Beef Plant. School district officials across the region focused on having a normal school day. Only Dumas Independent School District saw an impact on attendance the day after illegal immigrants were arrested at the Swift plant. "There's a tremendous amount of people who have temporarily adopted these kids," said Orlando Gajardo, a spokesman for Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Dumas. Gajardo said unofficially he knew of about 370 children whose primary guardians were arrested during the Swift plant raid....
Raid leaves families fractured - CO Isabel Ramirez wept as she clutched her 18-month-old daughter, Brenda, in the ramshackle trailer park where she lives. Her husband, Juan, had been detained in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant where he worked, and she didn't know where he was. "He was the only one working. He paid for everything, the bills, rent. I have three kids," 33-year- old Isabel Ramirez said. As she spoke, her 7-year-old daughter, Laura, was at school, and her 3-year-old son, Juanito, kicking muddy snow by the trailer, was having a very bad day. His father "is in jail," Juanito said. He threw a stick angrily down at the snow and turned and banged his head against the side of a broken trampoline. As authorities began deporting workers rounded up in raids at meatpacking plants here and in five other states, this city, which for decades has run on illegal labor from Mexico, confronted an unexpected challenge: what to do about kids left behind....
Swift workers detained at military camp, lawyers say - Iowa At least 90 workers arrested at a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Marshalltown are being detained at Camp Dodge near Des Moines, lawyers and social service groups say. The workers -- some of the nearly 1,300 Swift employees arrested in a six-state immigration sweep Tuesday -- are being processed by federal immigration officials investigating whether workers were illegal immigrants or using stolen identities to legitimize their employment. Lawyers and social service groups also say Camp Dodge may be the clearinghouse for workers nabbed in raids at Swift facilities in Worthington, Minn., and Grand Island, Neb. Tim Counts, spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, declined to confirm whether any Swift employees were being held in Camp Dodge....