4/17/2008: Security News Brief: "Illegal" Immigration Raids Net
Hundreds:
Federal agents arrested hundreds of people in raids at Pilgrim's Pride
chicken plants in West Virginia and four other states, the latest
crackdown on illegal immigrant labor at the nation's poultry
producers.
In separate sweeps Wednesday, authorities also arrested dozens of
workers at a doughnut factory in Houston and the operators of a chain
of Mexican restaurants in upstate New York.
The arrests at Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the
nation's largest chicken producer, included charges of identity theft,
document fraud and immigration violations. The company worked with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ahead of the raid, said Ray
Atkinson, a company spokesman.
"We knew in advance and cooperated fully,'' Atkinson said.
Julie Myers, homeland security assistant secretary for ICE, confirmed
the company is cooperating, though she said the raids grew out of an
investigation that produced arrests last year at the company's plant
in Mount Pleasant.
No criminal or civil charges have been filed against Pilgrim's Pride,
which has about 55,000 employees and operates dozens of facilities
mostly across the South and in Mexico and Puerto Rico, supplying the
KFC restaurant chain and other customers. It employs 2,250 in West
Virginia.
ICE said nearly 300 were arrested, but Pilgrim's Pride officials said
about 400 hourly, non-management employees were arrested.
"We have terminated all of the employees who were taken into custody
and will terminate any employee who is found to have engaged in
similar misconduct. We are investigating these allegations further,''
Atkinson said in a statement.
Forty-five people, all illegal immigrants, were arrested in Mount
Pleasant on charges of false use of Social Security numbers, ICE said.
More than 100 people were arrested on immigration violations in
Chattanooga, Tenn., and they could face criminal charges related to
identity theft, the agency said. Another 100 were arrested on
immigration charges in Moorefield, W.Va.
More than 25 people face immigration violation charges in Live Oak,
Fla. They will also face identity theft or document fraud charges, ICE
said. More than 20 were arrested in Batesville, Ark., on federal
warrants for alleged document fraud or identity theft.
The company has said its policy has been to fire employees who can't
clear up discrepancies in their documentation.
Wednesday's coordinated raids began at 5:30 a.m., said John Ratcliffe,
U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. He said agents went
to homes as well as the plants.
"I hope that the message from today's operation is clear,'' Ratcliffe
said. "We are intent on stopping immigration fraud and identity theft
and we will aggressively prosecute anyone who uses another person's
name or Social Security number for the purpose of working illegally in
this country.''
Those whose identities were stolen were denied benefits, told they
owed taxes and even arrested as a result of the crime, Myers said.
DJs on a Spanish-language radio station told listeners to be careful
Wednesday after reporting news of the raid. After the arrests, many of
the dozens of businesses in town that cater to Latino immigrants had
few customers or none at all.
"It's sad and scary,'' said Sheita Delacruz, who works at her mother's
dress and gift shop.
It was at least the fourth round of raids at U.S. poultry plants in
the past three years.
"Poultry plants have been among the targets, but they've really been
quite varied who (Homeland Security) is going after,'' said Angela
Kelley, executive director of the Immigration Policy Center, an
advocacy group.
"There are industries that are immigrant-heavy, and poultry,
meatpacking, those are the kinds of industries where you tend to see a
lot of immigrant labor in what is, quite frankly, backbreaking work.''
The poultry raids were the largest of several immigration enforcement
actions across the country Wednesday.
Agents arrived before dawn at a Houston doughnut plant and arrested
almost 30 workers suspected of being in the country illegally. Robert
Rutt, the agent in charge of the Houston ICE office, said some of the
people arrested lived at the Shipley Do-Nuts dough factory, a four-
block plant that includes a dormitory for workers.
In Buffalo, N.Y., federal law enforcement officials announced the
arrest of a local businessman and 10 restaurant managers accused of
employing illegal Mexican immigrants in seven restaurants in four
states. Two restaurant managers in West Virginia were arrested:
Alberto Antimo of New Martinsville and Alejandro Garcia of Wheeling.
Authorities also arrested 45 illegal immigrants during raids in
western New York; Bradford, Pa.; Mentor, Ohio; and Wheeling and New
Martinsville.
Authorities said the workers were forced to staff the Mexican
restaurants for long hours with little pay to work off smuggling fees
and rent.
The restaurants' owner, Simon Banda, who also uses the name Jorge
Delarco, of Depew, N.Y., is charged with conspiring to harbor illegal
aliens. He appeared in court without a lawyer Wednesday and was given
until Friday to hire one. Magistrate Judge Hugh Scott ordered him
detained until then.
In Atlanta, a federal grand jury indicted 10 people from suburban
Atlanta employment agencies on charges they placed illegal immigrants
in jobs at Chinese restaurants and warehouses in six states. The
agencies are accused of developing a network to "recruit and exploit''
undocumented workers, said Kenneth Smith, special agent in charge of
the ICE office in Atlanta.
Between October 2006 and April 2008, the agencies advertised their
services and charged immigrants a fee for finding a job, without
requiring any proof that the workers were allowed to work in the U.S,
prosecutor David Nahmias said.
Authorities accuse the restaurants in Kentucky, New York,
Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama of providing housing and
paid workers in cash to avoid taxes, Nahmias said.
The charges are not related to the Pilgrim's Pride raids.
Source: Morning Security News Brief via ICE News Release
