Here's a picture from USDA establishment 3W in Worthington, MN.
Posted on 12/12/2006 9:12:29 AM PST by VxH
Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents raided six Swift & Co. plants this morning with civil search warrants, arresting illegal immigrants working at the plants.
Barbara Gonzalez, an ICE public affairs officer, said they don’t have any numbers on how many people will be taken out of any of the plants and probably won’t have that number until Wednesday. She said Swift is not facing any charges right now, but the investigation is continuing.
“At this point, a civil search warrant allows us to search the premises to find any illegal aliens. The strong point here is that a lot of U.S. citizens and U.S. residents have been victimized ... by a large scale identify theft scheme,” Gonzalez said.
Agents entered the beef plant through a west door of the beef plant carrying up to 100 handcuffs on a chain at about 7:30 a.m.
Gonzalez said other plants entered included beef plants in Grand Island, Neb., Cactus, Texas and Hyrum, Utah, and pork plants in Marshalltown, Iowa and Worthington, Minn.
When will the CEO of Swift be in jail?
It's nice to see ICE doing their job, for once!
one out of a million..but its a start..Here in greely Colorado...they will take half of them away I bet...but on the other hand ..they will only take the ones away with an outstanding warrant I bet...
it will destroy this company as it should..of course they said they didn't know....yeah right....this is Great
The crowd gathering at the Swift & Co. beef packing plant in north Greeley is apparently going to try and block buses and vans leaving the plant with employees picked up by Immigration and Custom Enforcement officials this morning.
The crowd is moving to the north exit of the plant on the east side of 8th Avenue in an attempt to prevent the buses and vans from moving.
Grabbing the popcorn to watch the show!
Don't count on it. They are all loyal GOP contributors I am sure.
You are so right, Ben. The aliens wouldn't be here if it weren't for them. The workers shouldn't be the only ones paying the price.
Check out Bar S meats, they've been using the verification system for years to avoid hiring illegals.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44726
"I have an answer back within a minute," Martin Thompson, vice president for human resources at Bar-S Foods Co., a Phoenix-based meat-processing firm told the Arizona Republic. The company has been able to participate in the program since 1998 because some of its 1,500 employees are in California and Texas."
"Less than 8 percent of the time we will find someone where the computer kicks them back," says Thompson. That's a reduction from the 30 percent Bar-S was seeing in 1998 when it first started the program.
But if others decide to join Bar-S, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services may not be ready. On its website, the agency warns: "If significantly more employers than anticipated choose to participate in the Basic Pilot Program, USCIS may have to limit the number of participants." (snip)
8:55 a.m. update: Families and friends are starting to gather near the Swift & Co. plants in northeast Greeley as immigration officials conduct a raid.
In a brief discussion outside the plant this morning, two women wanted answers from a Swift public affairs officer.
Lupe Papia's mother, a 19-year employee at Greeley's meatpacking plant, took today off in honor of the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe — a day to that commemorates Our Lady of Guadalupe's supposed appearance to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City in the 1500s.
She went to mass at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church early this morning, but soon after the service, she heard that federal immigration agents were at Swift & Co.'s plant.
Immediately, Papia and her mother headed over to the plant and started trying to reach co-workers inside the plant, but they couldn't get a hold of anyone. Papia wanted to know why immigration officials would choose a holy day for the raid. She told the public affairs officer, Barbara Gonzalez, that she was offended by that.
Papia also said the plant workers were just trying to work.
Why do they have to use the excuse of "Identity Theft" to justify this raid? How about the fact that they are illegal.
Swift has already released a statement that they have done nothing wrong.
Sounds heavy. 500 plastic cable ties bound with a rubber band would be more convenient to carry.
Actually, both the CEO and the illegals could make a good salami, since it is a meat-processing facility anyway. CEO - a premium kind, with wine, at something like $10+ a pound. the rest of the bunch would not rate more than $7 a pound, though.
They should be arrested for obstruction of justice.
I'm Catholic and I don't remember this being a holy day. I would think breaking the law on a "holy day" would be even worse than just breaking the law on a normal day.
10:16 a.m. update: A look at the documents.
The Greeley Tribune is reviewing the affidavits of 25 arrest warrants filed Monday afternoon at Weld District Court in connection with an United States Immigration Customs Enforcement raid on Swift & Co. plants in Greeley and other locations. We will post updates of the affidavits in groups of five at a time. These posts will contain excerpts and summaries of some of the affidavits. Here is the first group:
• On July 6, 2006, a woman claiming to be Edna Flores completed a portion of her Form I-9 that identified her as a U.S. citizen with a Colorado I.D. card. Federal Trade Commission records show Edna Flores is actually a resident of Texas and filed a complaint after she got a notice from the IRS saying she owed back taxes. ICE agents compared a photo of Edna Flores with the Swift employee and determined they were different people.
• On Nov. 26, 2002, a man claiming to be Otilio Torres Rivera completed forms that identified her as a citizen with a North Carolina I.D. card. A death certificate shows Rivera died Feb. 2, 2005. His sister filed a complaint after receiving an earning report from the Social Security Administration saying he was employed. His sister also reported Virginia police told her Rivera’s vehicle was in an accident after he had died.
• On Jan. 4, 2002, a man claiming to be Alvino De Leon Correa completed forms that identified him as citizen with a Colorado I.D. card. FTC records show Correa is actually a resident of Texas. He believes his information may have been stolen when he lost his wallet. ICE agents compared a driver’s license photo of Correa with that of the Swift employee and determined they were different people.
• On July 30, 2001, a woman claiming to be Yesenia Lopez filled out forms identifying her as citizen with a Nebraska I.D. card. FTC record show Yesenia Hernandez is a California resident and filed a complaint after she learned someone using her maiden name was employed at “Swift Beef Company.” Ice agents used a copy of her driver’s license to determine she and the Swift employee were different people. When contacted by agents, she said Hernandez said she had never lived in Nebraska or Colorado.
• On Mar. 11, 2003, a woman claiming to be Jennifer Rosas filled out forms identifying her as a citizen with a Colorado I.D. card. FTC records show that Rosas is actually a resident of Texas and filed a complaint after learning someone used her I.D. to get a driver’s license in Arkansas and get a job at “Swift Beef Company.” She reported someone may have stolen her I.D. when they stole her purse. ICE agents compared her driver’s license photo with a photo of the Swift employee and determined they are different people.
They have to bring up the identity theft because all of these illegal workers claimed to have a social security or tax ID, wink wink, and the employers say good, that's what we needed, wink wink. The illegals either make up a number or steal someone's number. It should be easy enough to verify if a SSN or tax ID is genuine but the employers really don't want to look that hard as long as they are not getting in any trouble.
www.greeleytribune.com check there for more updates, if they can get the website to stay up!
I didn't read anywhere that the illegals were being shipped south of the border.
Mebbe they're being `processed'.
therefore the real problem is where did they get all those SSNs? they are working likely with real numbers and id's.
10:33 a.m. Buses and vans are leaving the Swift & Co. beef packing plant moving through a corridor of Greeley Police Department cars which are blocking a crowd of several hundred who are chanting at the vehicles leave the packing plant.
The buses and vans were leaving southbound on 8th Avenue through downtown Greeley.
Earlier, Father Bernie Schmitz of Our Lady of Peace was at the scene, reciting the Rosary with several in the crowd.
Looks like the police got the crowd under control...
Then they can be back to work tomorrow!
Yes right now you don't have to prove its a leagal ID....isn't that nice....
I hope they check ALL the employees...not just the ones with warrants....I bet they get 3/4 of them as illegal....
lets see how the law works....
and I am watching carefully how the Riot will start...LOL
No! He'll get away with this. In a month he'll have the illegal aliens replaced with more illegal aliens.
The government should use the RICO law to take all the assets of the company and the personal assets of the executives and board of directors. That would have companies all over the country cleaning house of their illegal aliens.
Not if they're `soylento verde'--esta el pueblo!
If you get on the website....copy the page..its hard to get on....its overloaded
"Grabbing the popcorn to watch the show!"
I wonder if I have time to drive from Longmont and still catch the show?
Used to see the Monforts' Gulfstream flying over a lot.
Tribune staff poised to report on Swift meatpacking raid; various background pieces may help you understand story
Virtual Greality - Chris Cobler
An Online Publisher's Blog
Meet the Blogger
WEB EXTRAS
Swift Raid Video Coverage
December 12, 2006
As what appears to be the biggest story this year in northern Colorado unfolds this morning, we encourage you to keep checking greeleytribune.com for updates.
We have almost all of our reporters, photographers and online journalists deployed around Swift’s meatpacking plant near downtown Greeley.
For background on the issue of illegal immigration, we encourage you to check last year’s award-winning series called North to Colorado..
Another good background piece is our series called Worlds Apart-Coming Together. Of particular interest today would be the installment called The Company, which details the meatpacking plant’s huge influence in Weld County.
If you have information to add to our coverage, please e-mail us at readers@greeleytribune.com or our city desk at 392-4435.
Is that Spanish? Maybe someone should be checking your ID.
This is a good start. I certainly hope these folks are charged and prosecuted for ID theft and then deported to serve their time in their country's prisons. LOL
Employ an illegal, put a US citizen out of work, is what congress believes.
I do not know where the tipping point is in this nation, but illegals will figure prominently in the tipping point, when the citizens of this nation will have had enough. I do not know when it will happen, but it will happen, should we continue on this path where illegals are given jobs before Americans.
Sorry Dixie, I don't mean to be a smart *** but I've just about given up on our government doing anything, other than token raids, to enforce our laws.
Nearly every day is a holy day isnt it?
When do we....LEGAL citizens...go block the busses and the trucks.....??????
[The government should use the RICO law to take all the assets of the company and the personal assets of the executives and board of directors.]
Yep. Some serious prison time for a few CEOs might do wonders for the "immigration" problem.
What we have is a law enforcement problem.
If you're a billionare and your company breaks the law - you don't go to jail, you get to be ambassador to the Netherlands.
"Maybe someone should be checking your ID."
You want me to show my papers? Come ahead, nuevo.
Since the Feds won't enforce laws...I don't see a reason why counties just adopt a $5,000 fee for each illegal caught within their county. Tell the DA that he can keep 20 percent of that for his personal office costs, and you might suddenly wake up the employers...which is what all of us have hinted at for years. Let the county keep the money and roll it into schools or hospitals. Watch the Feds sweat when you start taking actions to correct their own behavior.
If you take a walk, they'll tax your feet,
If you buy a car, they'll tax the street.
How about a 50% surcharge on all money transfers to Old Meheeco?
I think that's a tax we could all agree upon.
The buses and vans were leaving southbound on 8th Avenue through downtown Greeley.
Earlier, Father Bernie Schmitz of Our Lady of Peace was at the scene, reciting the Rosary with several in the crowd.
ping
A good way to pay for the fence
6 down, hundreds to go!!!!!
I think this as just a feel good measure to show us they are trying to do something.
They are doing same type RAID in Texas Panhandle right now near Dumas Tx. Cactus, TX is right outside there and has a big meat packer plant http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,236044,00.html
Why am I not surprised about the Hyrum, Utah plant. Utahn's love illegal aliens. Illegals have caused a major hassle out here, and it is time we shut them down.
Bounty? Anyone?
Exactly catch and release, this is probably for show. I hope I'm wrong though.
I see a revolving door spinning in their future.
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