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Remember they don't break any other laws.

 
 
Baldimo
 
Reply Tue 12 Dec, 2006 12:13 pm
GREELEY, Colo. ?- Federal agents raided meat processing plants in six states Tuesday and arrested an unknown number of suspected illegal immigrants in an identity theft investigation, temporarily suspending operations at all six plants.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the workers were being arrested on administrative immigration violations and in some cases, existing criminal arrest warrants stemming from a nearly yearlong investigation.
ICE chief Julie L. Myers told reporters in Washington that agents had uncovered a scheme in which illegal immigrants and others had stolen or bought the identities and Social Security numbers of possibly hundreds of U.S. citizens and lawful residents to get jobs with Greeley-based meat processor, Swift & Co.
Six Swift processing facilities were raided Tuesday, in Greeley, Colo.; Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn., representing all of Swift's domestic beef processing capacity and 77 percent of its pork processing capacity.
No charges had been filed against the company.
"Swift has never condoned the employment of unauthorized workers, nor have we ever knowingly hired such individuals," Swift & Co. President and CEO Sam Rovit said in a written statement.
Since 1997, Swift has been using a government pilot program that confirms whether Social Security numbers are valid. Company officials have previously said one shortcoming may be the program's ability to detect when two people are trying to use the same number.
In Greeley, cars lined the street leading to the plant as family members stood outside. One person held a sign that said, "Presents! No tears at Christmas!"
One sheriff's deputy described the scene outside a meatpacking plant in Hyrum, Utah, as a circus.
"They've got three buses, a bunch of transport vans, a lot of cars and 150 or so agents," chief Cache County deputy David Bennett said Tuesday.
Bennett said ICE officials didn't notify the sheriff's department about the raid.
"They didn't ask for our help," Bennett said. "We were lucky to find out."
Swift & Co. describes itself as an $8 billion business and the world's second-largest meat processing company. In Hyrum, where city Administrator Brent Jensen says the plant employs more than 1,000 workers, the company can process up to 2,200 cattle a day, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Myers said immigration officials were "looking very aggressively" at who may have sold the identities to the workers in several cases. She said ICE had uncovered several different rings that may have provided illegal documents.
Some immigrants targeted had genuine U.S. birth certificates and others had other kinds of false identification, Myers said.
"The significance is that we're serious about work site enforcement and that those who steal identities of U.S. citizens will not escape enforcement," Myers said
ICE officials at the plants in Greeley and Worthington, Minn., said the total number of arrests might not be released until Wednesday, when a news conference was scheduled in Washington.
"We have been investigating a large identity theft scheme that has victimized many U.S. citizens and lawful residents," said ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez, at the plant in Greeley.
Gonzalez said federal agents worked closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to try to minimize the disruption at the plants while carrying out the search warrants.

Crossing the border isn't the only law they broke.
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Crossing the border, working illegally and now stealing people identities. Doesn't stealing your ID also cause other issues? They have an ID with your name and get tickets or other services for themselves. You get pulled over and get arrested for warrants that aren't even yours. So much for being law biding people who only want to work.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 0 • Views: 1,198 • Replies: 11
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Baldimo
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Dec, 2006 09:01 am
Quite the amount of upset over these raids on the meat packing plants. Whats the general feeling on catching these law breakers?
0 Replies
 
LoneStarMadam
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Dec, 2006 09:27 am
But....but, i thought they were just picking lettuce & apples. Shocked
Isn't that what's being said?
This is just the tip of the ice berg.
0 Replies
 
McGentrix
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Dec, 2006 09:29 am
Boortz had something to say about this.

AN IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN....SORT OF

Agents from ICE, that is the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department raided meatpacking plants in six states yesterday. The targets: illegal aliens working in the plants. So what were these invaders from the South arrested on? Identity theft charges. Seems they stole other people's identity to get their jobs. So will company officials be arrested and charged with hiring illegal aliens? Will those arrested be deported? Nope and nope.

Once again, our toothless immigration policies are at work here. The raid was huge, by the way...some 1,000 agents were involved. It was the result of an 11-month investigation. According to a Homeland Security official "the signal we're intending to send here is we're serious about work site enforcement, and those individuals who steal identities of U.S. citizens will not escape action from us." Not so fast. The real signal you're sending is that the United States will continue to do nothing about illegal immigration....for two reasons.

One, those illegals arrested are not going to automatically be deported. Shouldn't this be a no-brainer? But no...we can't possibly kick any of the 12 million Mexican invaders out of the country. That would be politically incorrect. Second, the officials who run these meatpacking plants aren't being arrested for hiring illegal aliens. It's obvious they knew what was going on...and chose to look the other way in the name of cheap labor.

Now we have another element to the story. Unions. Yup, The union representing Swift & Company workers was in federal court trying to get an injunction against the raids. The union is asking questions about violations of the illegal's civil rights. Spare me. The union also said that the raid was designed to "terrorize" the illegals. Spare me another time. Oh .... and we're also getting the "exploitation" line. These poor, poor innocent illegal aliens were just used by these mean mean corporations.

So ... was this for show? Or are we going to get serious about the Mexican invasion?
0 Replies
 
eoe
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Dec, 2006 09:47 am
We'll see, hopefully.

My husband heard on CNN yesterday that Swift had a policy of handing out the SS numbers of ex-employees. Has anyone else heard that?

And why aren't these companies being prosecuted and fined? That's how you eliminate the problem. Maybe, if they were forced to pay better wages, they'd find US citizens more apt to do the job.

Let's get to the bottom of this thing, that's what I say.
0 Replies
 
Baldimo
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Dec, 2006 10:07 am
eoe wrote:
We'll see, hopefully.

My husband heard on CNN yesterday that Swift had a policy of handing out the SS numbers of ex-employees. Has anyone else heard that?

And why aren't these companies being prosecuted and fined? That's how you eliminate the problem. Maybe, if they were forced to pay better wages, they'd find US citizens more apt to do the job.

Let's get to the bottom of this thing, that's what I say.


From what I understood about the issue. Swift is part of a federal program that has them check to see if SS #'s are good or not. If they do a check and the #'s being given are good then what other course do they have to follow?
0 Replies
 
roger
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Dec, 2006 10:37 am
And if the numbers are not good, guess what? The employer is advised by SS Admin not to take adverse action based on the notification they have given. There. You do nothing. You can not do anything. SS, IRS, and INS are totally isolated from each other. So, yeah, right. String up the employer.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Dec, 2006 10:47 am
In March, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated the about 14 percent of the workers in the food manufacturing facilities were undocumented immigrants.

Seems, it might be some more than that.
0 Replies
 
roger
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Dec, 2006 10:59 am
In Colorado and North Carolina, it is probably much higher. Nationwide, that's probably about right. That's lumping undocumented and falsely documented aliens together.
0 Replies
 
Baldimo
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Dec, 2006 11:01 am
roger wrote:
And if the numbers are not good, guess what? The employer is advised by SS Admin not to take adverse action based on the notification they have given. There. You do nothing. You can not do anything. SS, IRS, and INS are totally isolated from each other. So, yeah, right. String up the employer.


In this case I'm not blaming the employer because they were part of a pilot program set up by the govt. If they did what the program says then they are not at fault. Everyone one of these people who were busted yesterday should be deported to their home countries. They not only broke the law by being here they also broke the law by stealing other peoples ID's. This is a federal offense and should be punished. Don't put them in jail just deport them.
0 Replies
 
Baldimo
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Dec, 2006 11:02 am
roger wrote:
In Colorado and North Carolina, it is probably much higher. Nationwide, that's probably about right. That's lumping undocumented and falsely documented aliens together.


I think they all still fall into the same catagory. They had to know they had false papers and didn't care.
0 Replies
 
roger
 
  1  
Reply Wed 13 Dec, 2006 11:49 am
Baldimo wrote:
roger wrote:
In Colorado and North Carolina, it is probably much higher. Nationwide, that's probably about right. That's lumping undocumented and falsely documented aliens together.


I think they all still fall into the same catagory. They had to know they had false papers and didn't care.


It's not a matter of caring or not caring. I get notifications of mismatched names/ss numbers every year. I send copies of beautiful documents back every year. That's all I'm permitted to do. Get the three involved agencies working together (IRS, SSA, and INS) and something might happen.

Oh, are you aware that IRS issues an Individual Taxpayer Identification number on request? The do. That's so undocumented workers can file tax returns and pay taxes. Swell!

Actully, LittleBitty has given me an idea on how to deal with the situation next time around. I think it has potential.
0 Replies
 
 

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