ID thieves targeted in immigration raids

[Pentagongirlie]

Feds raid Swift meat-packing plants at six locations across country
NBC VIDEO

• Feds raid meat plants
Dec. 12: Federal agents raided six meatpacking plants in six states on Tuesday, targeting illegal immigrants accused of using stolen identities. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
MSNBC


Updated: 1 hour, 4 minutes ago
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.

Company’s reaction
“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 in 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 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.”

More on immigration and ID theft
• Secret list of ID theft victims
• Hidden cost of illegal immigration — ID theft
• Employment ID theft a virtually invisible crime

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.

Several rings suspected
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..

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16169899/

[Gaius Millhelm]

We watched some of this unfold live on CNN Pipeline and other streaming media services that we subscribe to here in the Command Center. Our Israeli associates were also following the news because it is obviously of interest to their security analysis clients!

It is certainly good that USA govt is actually stepping up its enforcement and active work on border issues. But as EW is saying to me now from the captain's chair where he is unable to type anymore...........

"You need to have a good set of carrots when you wield the Big Stick or the weight of the unbalanced Stick will throw off your game."

[Pentagongirlie]

Raids in 6 states may be largest ever By JENNIFER TALHELM, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 32 minutes ago


WASHINGTON - 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.

The arrested workers were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Laos, Sudan, Ethiopia and other countries.

During a raid Tuesday at the Swift plant in Greeley, Colo., a frustrated Tony Garcia watched as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarmed inside to arrest illegal immigrants. "We need help, we need answers," he said, questioning who would take care of the children whose parents were arrested.

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.
___

Associated Press Writer Kim Nguyen contributed to this story.

[Ono]

Good work by the feds!

[Pentagongirlie]

Good work by the feds!:clap: Damn right!