230 people arrested - 20 people charged

[seemslikeadream]

I wonder how many were actually charged out of the 1300

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/state/minnesota/16269198.htm

MINNEAPOLIS - A federal grand jury has indicted 20 people on immigration-related charges in the wake of last week's arrests in the raid on the Swift and Company plant in Worthington.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested almost 13-hundred people at Swift meat processing plants in six states last Tuesday -- including 230 arrested in Worthington.

Nineteen of those arrested are charged with knowingly using other people's social security cards and numbers to show they were authorized to hold jobs in the United States. They also are charged with using false I-Ds to satisfy requirements of the national employment verification system.

The 20th defendant is charged with re-entering the United States after being deported

[enuffs_enuffs]

1. Good thing is...

That only 1.54% of people arrested will have lasting effects from the latest PR move. btw, what ever happened to prosecuting firms who hire illegals? THAT seems to be more effective, aye?

[AngryAmish]

2. Maybe the rest just got deported

[enuffs_enuffs]

6. Upside: free ride home and 3 squares...

:sarcasm:

[RC]

3. I can't help but wonder what

Swift did to piss off whoever sic'd immigration on them.

[meganmonkey]

4. Here's great coverage about the bullshit 'sweep' at the Swift plants:

I'm posting the very end of a very well-researched and damning article. I seriously recommend reading the whole thing.

-----------------------------------

A DHS source put it this way to Narco News:

“Who arrests illegal aliens at Christmas time that are coming to work to butcher pigs? How does that make our country safer? All it does is raise the price of pork.”

In the end, maybe it’s true what they say: The rich man’s gain comes from the poor man’s pain.

Or, as George Orwell put it: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”


http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/12/16/114924/26

[Jcrowley]

5. Excellent article

Worthy of it's own thread. Serious situation.

ICE's Swift Plant Raids Netted Only Poor Folks Caught Up in the `War on Illegal Immigration'
By Bill Conroy,
Posted on Sat Dec 16th, 2006 at 11:49:24 AM EST
Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. — George Orwell

Earlier this week, the mainstream media headlines were blaring with news of a raid carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on six meat-processing plants owned by Greeley, Colo.-based Swift & Co.

The raids, orchestrated on Dec. 12, resulted in more than 1,200 allegedly undocumented immigrant workers being detained at the plants, many of whom were hauled off by busses across state lines to be processed and later released — a fact that has not yet made its way into the mainstream media. The raid was trumpeted by ICE as a major victory in the “war on illegal immigration” and as the culmination of a successful investigation into an organized crime ring that was supplying fraudulent ID documents to these workers.

The implied threat there, of course, is that this same organized crime ring could supply phony IDs to would-be terrorists as well. That has led the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to renew its political push for the quick adoption of a new centralized ID card system for U.S. citizens.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/12/16/114924/26

[meganmonkey]

7. I thought threads about immigration

were all the rage around here?

Kick!

[Jcrowley]

9. Depends

on the media hologram. At present the details of smoking and mountain rescue hold sway.

[tyedyeto]

8. Notice that it is the employees who are being charged,,,not the employers

This company is employing any person who comes to their office and nothing is being said about what the company/corporation is being fined for hiring immigrants who may or may not be legal. Only about those individuals who were detained.

[meganmonkey]

10. I highly recommend this article:

It addresses those questions and many more.

----snip----

A press release issued by the company following the ICE raids emphasizes that the company goes beyond the call of duty in checking the background of its laborers:

Swift & Company’s comprehensive work authorization diligence has included, since 1997, participation in the federal Basic Pilot program – a voluntary, online verification system that allows employers to confirm the eligibility of new hires by checking the personal information they provide against federal databases. Today, Swift remains one of the very few employers to use the system.

ICE, for its part, seemingly claims in its press release about the Swift raids that the agency only recently discovered a major flaw the Basic Pilot program. It seems the program can’t detect when a valid Social Security number is being used multiple times by different people.

From the ICE press release issued Dec. 13:

By using valid Social Security numbers and birth certificates of U.S. citizens, these illegal aliens were able to thwart the Basic Pilot Employment Eligibility Verification system, a federal program designed to help employers detect unauthorized workers. Swift has used the Basic Pilot program since 1997.

Ironically, a Swift official told Congress about a major flaw with the Basic Pilot program this summer.

“As currently structured, the Basic Pilot Program cannot detect duplicate active records in its database,” stated Jack Shandley, Swift’s senior vice president of human resources, in testimony before the House Small Business Committee in June of this year. “The same social security number could be in use at another employer, and potentially multiple employers, across the country.”

So, it sounds like someone figured out a way to scam the Basic Pilot program, and ICE trumpets that fact in its press release (an indication that it had no clue up to that point) — even though Swift had figured it out by at least June of this year.

Anyway, according to DHS’ Chertoff, the glitch in the system led to Swift hiring 1,200 undocumented workers, if not more. Despite this fact, ICE was not able to gather enough evidence to convince a judge to issue a search warrant.

much more...


http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/12/16/114924/26

[tyedyeto]

11. I don't believe in any 'glitch' in the system

Workers are lured to these types of jobs and pay the ultimate price while the employers gets away with hiring those who are here 'illegally'.

[meganmonkey]

12. If you read the whole article it puts it in perspective

It is really good coverage of the event. I just posted a small excerpt.

[tyedyeto]

13. It sounds like the 'corporation' is looking for a scapegoeat

What is this corporation doing to correct this matter? Is the Federal Gov't fining them? Are these workers still in the employment of Swift?

As someone who lives close to the border, these are questions that I'm seeking answers to.