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About 100 Pilgrim’s Pride workers detained, chaplain says
Chattanooga Times Free Press ^ | April 16, 2008 | Perla Trevizo

Posted on 04/16/2008 1:22:30 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana

Workers from the Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant in downtown Chattanooga are being interviewed at a local warehouse to determine if they will be face charges, officials said.

Immigration agents interviewed the employees today as part of a yearlong, multi-state investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa said.

The agents detained about 100 workers at two Chattanooga plants, Suana Betancourt, Pilgrim’s Pride chaplain, said.

“Another chaplain of the plant called me this morning to tell me about what was happening,” she said, “We went there right away to try to calm everyone down because they were afraid immigration was going to take all of them.”

Mrs. Betancourt said immigration agents gave a document to the workers explaining it was not a raid.

“Apparently they had a list of people that had committed identity theft and that they had called their names individually,” she said.

Immigration agents have been inside the Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant since 8:15 a.m. as part of a the criminal investigation that includes other plants in Jacksonville, Fla., Charles Town, W.Va., and Batesville, Ark., Mrs. Zamarripa said.

Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for Pilgrim’s Pride, said the company worked with government officials at all five of the plants where workers were arrested today.

“We knew about it in advance and we cooperated fully,” he said. “Pilgrim’s Pride is not being charged with any civil or criminal charges. According to the information we have, the individuals who were arrested today were engaged in immigration-related crimes, including aggravated identity theft, in order to gain fraudulent employment with our company.”

Mr. Atkinson said Pilgrim’s Pride has employed outside experts to help with its immigration compliance and has voluntarily participated for the past couple of years in E-verify, the Homeland Security program designed to determine employment eligibility for all new hires.

“However, as noted by Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the E-Verify/Basic Pilot program cannot detect identity theft situations,” Mr. Atkinson said.

Mrs. Zamarripa said that once the agents determine if the individual is an unauthorized worker, they will decide if it is a criminal or administrative case.

Criminal cases usually involve people who have been deported before or who were using false, bought or borrowed documents, Mrs. Zamarripa said.

Administrative cases involve people who, for example, entered the country illegally and don’t have a criminal record, she said.

Men who are arrested on administrative immigration violations will be transported to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin Ga., and women to the Davidson County Jail near Nashville, officials said.

Those charged with criminal charges will have to appear in federal court. Mrs. Zamarripa said the agency also is working closely with the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services to ensure no child is left without the proper care.

In December, 21 employees of Pilgrim’s Pride were arrested at two plants in Texas and charged with ID fraud and immigration violations, according to news reports.

People seeking information about the status of those detained call the ICE “friends and family line” at 866-341-3858. Information is available in Spanish and English.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: aliens; ice; immigration; tennessee
We went there right away to try to calm everyone down because they were afraid immigration was going to take all of them _________________________________________________

EVERY employee at the Chattanooga plant is an illegal alien ????

1 posted on 04/16/2008 1:22:31 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: 1COUNTER-MORTER-68; 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten; 3AngelaD; alice_in_bubbaland; aligncare; AliVeritas; ...

PING


2 posted on 04/16/2008 1:23:37 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Tennessee Nana
... call the ICE “friends and family line”

ROFLMAO. So you can check to see if your friends and/or family memeber is under arrest??

3 posted on 04/16/2008 1:27:11 PM PDT by Lurking in Kansas (Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down t heir level, then beat you with experience.)
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To: Tennessee Nana

where’s the ACLU!!! a company with a chaplain MUST have a church too!


4 posted on 04/16/2008 1:27:26 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB (Conservatives are to McCain what Charlie Brown is to Lucy.)
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To: Tennessee Nana

“However, as noted by Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the E-Verify/Basic Pilot program cannot detect identity theft situations,” Mr. Atkinson said.

Wow!


5 posted on 04/16/2008 1:31:50 PM PDT by acoulterfan
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To: WOBBLY BOB

Never heard of Church’s fried chicken?


6 posted on 04/16/2008 1:31:56 PM PDT by OeOeO
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To: WOBBLY BOB

LOL


7 posted on 04/16/2008 1:32:02 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Tennessee Nana

Keep pressure on the illegals! Drive them out of the country!


8 posted on 04/16/2008 1:33:17 PM PDT by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it!)
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To: Tennessee Nana
It is happening all over the country today, a big crackdown. They busted a lot of people here in NE Texas where Pilgrim's HQ was. It was not just about hiring illegal immigrants but also a big identity theft ring.
9 posted on 04/16/2008 1:33:27 PM PDT by mnehrling
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To: Tennessee Nana
if the individual is an unauthorized worker, they will decide if it is a criminal or administrative case

How about if they decide while the criminal invaders are in midflight home.

Free flights home for invaders.

10 posted on 04/16/2008 1:33:57 PM PDT by ASA Vet (Do we really want Huma answering the White House phone at 3 AM?)
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To: Tennessee Nana

The Pilgrims would be proud...


11 posted on 04/16/2008 1:34:06 PM PDT by Hegemony Cricket (Act Swiftly Awesome Pachyderm!)
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To: Tennessee Nana

“for example, entered the country illegally and don’t have a criminal record”

And how the f-— would the authorities know that? False ID. How do they know WHO they arrested?


12 posted on 04/16/2008 1:34:42 PM PDT by dynachrome (Immigration without assimilation means the death of this nation~Captainpaintball)
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To: Tennessee Nana

“Suana Betancourt, Pilgrim’s Pride chaplain”
chaplains at a chicken processing factory?
last rites for the layers? `Bless me, sister, I have skinned.’?
What the . . .


13 posted on 04/16/2008 1:36:52 PM PDT by tumblindice (Holy Francis, Saint of birds, help me pull, these chik-innards)
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To: Lurking in Kansas

Alo! Alo! Sa, I wan to cee if u hav Pedro Philipe Gonzales Obradon Hermandez in custodee.

Just a moment mam.

Hokay!

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Mam, it looks like we do. We’ll be right over to talk to you about it.


14 posted on 04/16/2008 1:38:11 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (McCain is rock solid on SCOTUS judicial appointments. He voted for Ginsberg, Kennedy and Souter.)
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To: Tennessee Nana
“We went there right away to try to calm everyone down because they were afraid immigration was going to take all of them.”

And just why the HELL NOT?

I don't want to listen to any BS about the "E-Verify not being able to detect ........"

We have been told in our local area, that if businesses check through E-Verify, they would be able to identify anyone using fraudulent numbers or inconsistent names/ages/etc.

Either that's true or it isn't and in any case, I want to know just what they are doing with all of those people who "aren't guilty of identity theft but are here illegally working with fraudulent documents, or what company officials are approving of those who are working without any!


15 posted on 04/16/2008 1:44:53 PM PDT by zerosix (native sunflower)
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To: Tennessee Nana
.......as noted by Michael (hahahah) Chertoff, Homeland/ Security/ Secm the E-Verify/Basic Pilot program cannot detect identity theft situations.......agents will decide if unauthorized workers are criminal or administrative cases. Criminal cases usually involve previously deportes illegals who were using false, bought or borrowed documents who sneaked back in........

And how about returning the multiple US govt benefits they stole using several identities........ AND get back all the monies they stole and fraudulently laundered via Western Union back to Mexico .......AND confiscate the condos and other property they bought in Mexico with US tax dollars.

16 posted on 04/16/2008 2:02:57 PM PDT by Liz (Without the brave, there'd be no land of the free. Senator Fred Thompson)
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To: Man50D; All

Federal Authorities In Identity Theft Roundup At Pilgrim’s Pride

Welfare Officials Seeking Homes For Children Left Without Parents

Federal immigration authorities were staging a roundup of workers allegedly involved in identity theft at the local Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant on Wednesday.

Officials said the raid was part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation at five Pilgrim’s Pride plants across the country.

One report said more than 280 foreign nationals were taken into custody at the five plants.

A host of agents were at the plant at 1300 Market St.

Chattanooga Police assisted in setting up a perimeter around the plant.

Authorities also had a staging area on Polymer Drive. Those picked up in the roundup were taken to that site for processing and were detained there temporarily.

One report was that many Hispanic parents of children who attend East Side Elementary and other local schools were rounded up at the local Pilgrim’s Pride.

Some local church and welfare officials were seeking to find homes for children left without any parents in the home to care for them.

Federal officials have been carrying out the probe for over a year.

Raids were also going on at plants at Batesville, Ark.; Mt. Pleasant, Tex.; Live Oak, Fla., and Moorefield, W. Va.

The roundups started early this morning.

A spokesperson said, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, in close coordination with our state, local and federal law enforcement partners, are making (administrative and/or criminal) arrests as part of an ongoing criminal investigation at this and four other Pilgrim’s Pride plants across the country.

“This is an operation targeting specific individuals who are suspected of engaging in identity theft. These arrests are a part of an ongoing investigation. Pilgrim’s Pride has cooperated with our execution of today’s operation.

“ICE has contacted local social service agencies in case any humanitarian issues arise. The people arrested will be interviewed by ICE and ICE’s Division of Immigration Health Services to specifically identify medical, sole-caregiver, or humanitarian concerns.”

A spokesman for Pilgrim’s Pride said it was the firm that first notified ICE officials of a problem relating to the Arkansas plant.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_125987.asp


17 posted on 04/16/2008 2:04:20 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Tennessee Nana
they will decide if it is a criminal or administrative case.

More BS, from home land security and the jorge administration. They are here illegally, they are using stolen ID's. Therefore it is criminal.

18 posted on 04/16/2008 2:11:49 PM PDT by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: Tennessee Nana

Chicken plants has a chaplain.....?


19 posted on 04/16/2008 2:15:37 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (TAZ:Untamed, Unpredictable, Uninhibited.)
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To: Tennessee Nana
EVERY employee at the Chattanooga plant is an illegal alien ????

THAT is exactly what I wondered. Just how many workers are illegal, how many of them have TB or other diseases and why weren't officials of the company arrested for knowingly hiring illegal invaders?

THIS just proves once again, that the government has NO intenetions of ever enforcing immigration laws!! It's time to start lynching the traitors. Actually, it's past time! :o)

20 posted on 04/16/2008 2:29:24 PM PDT by NRA2BFree ("The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves!")
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To: NRA2BFree
exactly
21 posted on 04/16/2008 2:49:12 PM PDT by OKIEDOC (Kalifornia, a red state wannabe. I don't take Ex Lax I just read the New York Times.)
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To: NRA2BFree

Sigh....It’s time to do something about the government which has no intention of ever enforcing immigration laws!


22 posted on 04/16/2008 2:56:07 PM PDT by Paperdoll ( on the cutting edge.)
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To: NRA2BFree
Does ICE give the illegals they round up TB tests while they are in custody before releasing them back into society?

Pilgrim's Pride has had problems in the past with TB infected employees.

"Last year, a former employee at Chattanooga’s Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant was diagnosed with tuberculosis, causing the company and local health officials to warn employees about possible exposure. A company nurse sent about 30 workers home after they received a warning letter.

Tests showed that there was no evidence of the illness spreading among workers"

TimesFreePress

23 posted on 04/16/2008 3:13:19 PM PDT by BloomNTn
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To: WOBBLY BOB

Very interesting that they pick the day the Pope shows up to garner sympathy for the illegals. Poor illegal trespassers and mean old USA. NOT


24 posted on 04/16/2008 3:22:00 PM PDT by Sterco
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To: Paperdoll

I am absolutely amazed at the timing of these raids. A visit from the Pope brings on immigration raids? We need to invite him more often!!!


25 posted on 04/16/2008 3:29:53 PM PDT by Sterco
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To: Tennessee Nana; raybbr

MEXICAN CONSULATE ON WHEELS—coming to a town near you?

Officials from the Mexican Consulate in New York began issuing passports and matricula consular cards to Mexican nationals in the New York tri-state area, by traveling town to town.

The documents can help Mexicans open bank accounts, obtain copies of their children’s birth certificates, and return to their homeland.

The Consulate on Wheels program, which began running in the New York tri-state area in February, has already visited five towns in New Jersey, Bridgeport, Conn, The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Harlem.

Gaspar Orozco, Mexico’s consul of community affairs in its New York office made the decision to bring the service to the towns said Gisel Vazquez, a community liaison.


26 posted on 04/16/2008 4:54:18 PM PDT by Liz (Without the brave, there'd be no land of the free. Senator Fred Thompson)
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To: Sterco; Tennessee Nana
Pope: 'The fundamental solution [would be] that there is no longer any need to immigrate'
National Catholic Reporter | 4/15/2008 | John Allen
FR Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 9:12:28 PM by Pyro7480

The following is a rush transcript of comments made by Pope Benedict XVI to reporters aboard the papal plane, on his way to his first pastoral visit to the United States....

Fr. Federico Lombardi: ...We’ll have a question from our colleague Andres Beltramo, from the Notimex agency in Mexico.

Beltramo: I’ll ask the question in Italian, but we would love to have just a greeting in Spanish. With the enormous growth in the Hispanic presence, the Catholic church in the United States is becoming steadily more bilingual and bicultural. Yet there’s also a growing “anti-immigrant” movement in America. Do you intend to invite the United States to welcome immigrants well, many of whom are Catholic?

Benedict XVI: "Unfortunately I’m not ready to speak in Spanish, but I offer a greeting and blessing for all the Spanish-speakers! Certainly I’ll talk about this subject... It seems to me that we have to distinguish between measures to be taken immediately, and longer-term solutions."

"The fundamental solution [would be] that there is no longer any need to immigrate, that there are sufficient opportunities for work and a sufficient social fabric that no one any longer feels the need to immigrate. "

"We all have to work for this objective, that social development is sufficient so that citizens are able to contribute to their own future. On this point, I want to speak with the President, because above all the United States must help countries develop themselves. Doing so is in the interests of everyone, not just this country but the whole world, including the United States. In the short term, it’s very important above all to help the families. This is the primary objective, to ensure that families are protected, not destroyed...."

(Excerpt) Read more at ncrcafe.org ...

27 posted on 04/16/2008 4:59:15 PM PDT by Liz (Without the brave, there'd be no land of the free. Senator Fred Thompson)
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To: BloomNTn
Does ICE give the illegals they round up TB tests while they are in custody before releasing them back into society? Pilgrim's Pride has had problems in the past with TB infected employees.

I highly doubt they require them to take TB tests, or test them for any other diseases, for that matter. If they did, they would have caught the employees with TB before they started to work. I do remember when they found all the employees who tested positive for TB.........

That said, IF you or I wanted to go work in a business that handles food, we would have to get all the required tests for food handlers before we started working. Of course, we're not favored Mexicans, so it's different for us. Every time I open food, I wonder where it's from, and who packed it. It's like playing a game of Russian Roulette.

28 posted on 04/16/2008 5:06:14 PM PDT by NRA2BFree ("The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves!")
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To: OeOeO
Never heard of Church’s fried chicken?

LOL Yep, and it's topped with cheese and TB!

29 posted on 04/16/2008 5:11:55 PM PDT by NRA2BFree ("The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves!")
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To: Paperdoll
Sigh....It’s time to do something about the government which has no intention of ever enforcing immigration laws!

I agree, but instead of doing that, we getting ready to elect more of the traitors who want amnesty. Once they give the Mexicans citizenship, we will NEVER get another conservative into office. I'd say the Republic is pretty much history!

30 posted on 04/16/2008 5:20:55 PM PDT by NRA2BFree ("The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves!")
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To: NRA2BFree
Once they give the Mexicans citizenship, we will NEVER get another conservative into office. I'd say the Republic is pretty much history!

It's worse than that...no Latin country is a superpower like the US...and if we continue this drive to Latinize America...we will fail as a nation just like former USSR...only for different reasons...mark my words...

31 posted on 04/17/2008 12:51:37 AM PDT by Niteflyr ("If youÂ’re drawing flak, you know you're over the target".)
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To: Tennessee Nana; 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; 2Trievers; 3AngelaD; 3pools; 3rdcanyon; 4Freedom; ...

Tennessee Raid Ping!


32 posted on 04/17/2008 12:28:49 PM PDT by HiJinx (~ Support our Troops ~ www.americasupportsyou.mil ~)
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