Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids at Swift meatpacking facilities in six states in December resulted in the arrest of nearly 1,300 suspected illegal aliens, including many who may also be charged with document fraud and identity theft. The raid may also result in legal difficulties for Swift executives, who face potential government prosecution as well as lawsuits filed by former employees who allege that the company deliberately hired illegal aliens in an effort to depress wages for American workers.
The stepped-up effort to bust companies that have flagrantly violated laws against hiring illegal aliens appears to be motivated not by a desire on the part of the Bush administration to enforce immigration laws, but rather to ratchet up pressure to enact an amnesty and expanded guest worker program. In announcing the actions taken against Swift, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stated that the raid highlighted the need for an increase in guest workers, which he claimed would alleviate the demand for illegal aliens.
Within a few days of the raids, Chertoff’s assertions were proven false. Reports from Greeley, Colorado, site of one of the Swift plants target by ICE, indicated that American workers began lining up to replace the illegal aliens who had been working there. Like most of the other jobs that President Bush and others argue Americans will not do, the response of people in Greeley and elsewhere proves that Americans are eager to take those jobs, if they are afforded the opportunity to work for living wages.
Similarly, 18 former employees at Swift’s Cactus, Texas, facility filed a Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) suit against Swift, alleging that the company’s policy of hiring illegal aliens was a deliberate effort to depress their wages. The plaintiffs claim that as a result of Swift’s pattern and practice of hiring illegal workers, wages have dropped from about $20 an hour to about $12 an hour.
The use of RICO suits against employers who knowingly use illegal alien labor in order to depress workers’ wages was first initiated by Chicago-based attorney Howard Foster, who has worked closely with FAIR in efforts to hold such employers accountable. All of the federal appellate courts that have considered the issue have validated the use of “alien-smuggling” RICO litigation by private parties, and several favorable monetary settlements have been achieved by US workers and businesses harmed by the employment of unauthorized aliens.
In addition to the 1,282 people detained on suspicion of being in the U.S. illegally, 220 face charges for using fraudulent documents and identity theft. The sale of fraudulent documents is alleged to have taken place right on the premises of the Swift facilities.
When will companies like Swift,and more of the general public,start to realize how serious of a problem this is!?
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Comments: 16
Congratulations on not succumbing to the PC pressure to call these invaders immigrants rather than aliens.
Stephanie makes a good point. The government knows about these places, and they choose to ignore them. The fallacy that Americans won't do the work is proven by the fact they are going there and asking for work and being turned away. This is sad. It's sadder still that our leaders would sooner wage a lost cause war overseas than deal with the problems here at home for the people that voted them into office.
Rex,I believe this kind of thing is very common.At least he made an effort to become legal even if it was by marrying a citizen.Hopefully he is one that will respect the traditions of this country.
It is not easy to get employers prosecuted for the hireing and not much easer to get the illegals deported as local law enforcement have no jurisdiction.
Illegal Immigrants
After almost a century, the words of Theodore Roosevelt still address the problems facing our nation today in the area of illegal immigrants. We would do well to heed his advice!
"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
Behind ICE's raid in New York City
By Petrino DiLeo | February 16, 2007 | Page 2
USING THE pretext of busting up a money-laundering operation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted its boldest raid ever in New York.
About 200 ICE agents and New York police officers raided 24 wire-transfer stores in Queens--mostly clustered in the heavily immigrant neighborhood of Jackson Heights--rounding up 27 people in the process. Of those, about 10 are undocumented and are being held indefinitely at the Federal Detention Center in New York City, awaiting trials.
The police department said the raids were the result of a two-year investigation into an alleged money-laundering scheme in which $2 million in drug money was funneled to Colombia.
To produce the arrests, the undercover police agents approached remittance agencies to conduct illegal transfers for two years--ironically using money seized in other drug raids. These tactics produced a list of suspects who were later arrested.
ICE has been operating in New York for years, rounding up individuals and families in small operations. But the raid in Jackson Heights--named Operation Pinpoint--is believed to be the first time ICE agents have been used as part of a criminal investigation in New York City. The tactic is similar to the raids at six Swift meatpacking plant in December, where the government used the story of breaking up an identity-theft ring as excuse for the round-up.
The remittance agencies--sometimes called people's banks--are the only option for many undocumented workers to send funds back to families in other countries. Though the agencies are rightly criticized for taking advantage of undocumented workers and charging exorbitant fees and interest, they do provide a vital service.
According to the World Bank, remittances are the largest source of external finance for developing countries, exceeding the amount they receive in foreign direct investment or foreign aid every year. In 2006, the World Bank expects remittance flows to developing countries will surpass $200 billion.
As a result of the raids, about half of the 24 wire-transfer businesses are completely shut down, and others have been open fewer hours than usual.
There is an expose on this in the movie Food Inc. at 54 minutes into the documentary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQSHgzbk43U