Immigration agents raid Pilgrim’s Pride plants
By ANABELLE GARAY, Associated Press Writer
MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas - Federal immigration agents raided Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plants in five states Wednesday in a crackdown on an alleged scam to provide fake identification for illegal immigrant workers, authorities said.
More than 100 people were expected to be charged in the raids at the nation’s largest chicken producer, Julie Myers, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement assistant secretary, told The Associated Press.
“Identity theft is a horrible problem that can ruin a person’s good name,” Myers said.
The raids were part of a long-term investigation, officials said. Plants were raided in Mount Pleasant, Texas, Batesville, Ark., Live Oak, Fla., Chattanooga, Tenn. and Moorefield, W.Va., authorities said.
Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim’s Pride, said the company went to ICE agents with information about identity theft at the Arkansas plant. Atkinson said the company uses a federal database to check identity documents of new employees, but that wouldn’t stop a person from using a real, but stolen ID.
Atkinson said no criminal or civil charges have been filed against the company, which has about 55,000 employees and operates dozens of facilities mostly across the South and in Mexico and Puerto Rico.
“We knew in advance and cooperated fully,” Atkinson said.
The poultry raids were the largest of several immigration enforcement actions taken across the country Wednesday.
Agents arrived before dawn at a Houston doughnut plant and arrested almost 30 workers suspected of being in the country illegally. Robert Rutt, the agent in charge of the Houston ICE office, told the Houston Chronicle some of the people arrested lived at the Shipley Do-Nuts dough factory, a four-block plant that includes a dormitory for workers.
In Buffalo, N.Y., federal law enforcement officials announced the arrest of a local businessman and 10 associates accused of employing illegal Mexican immigrants in seven restaurants in four states.
Authorities also arrested 45 illegal immigrants during the early morning raids in western New York, Bradford, Pa.; Mentor, Ohio; Wheeling and New Martinsville, W.Va., and Georgia.
Authorities said the workers were forced to staff the Mexican restaurants for long hours with little pay to work off smuggling fees and rent.
The restaurants’ owner, Simon Banda, who also uses the name Jorge Delarco, of Depew, N.Y., is charged with conspiring to harbor illegal aliens. He was due in court Wednesday afternoon and it was not immediately known if he had a lawyer.
In Atlanta, a federal grand jury indicted 10 people from suburban Atlanta employment agencies on charges they placed illegal immigrants in jobs at Chinese restaurants and warehouses in six states. The agencies allegedly developed a network to “recruit and exploit” undocumented workers, said Kenneth Smith, special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Atlanta.
Between October 2006 and April 2008 the agencies advertised their services and charged immigrants a fee for finding a job, without requiring any proof that the workers were allowed to work in the U.S, prosecutor David Nahmias said.
The restaurants in Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama allegedly often provided housing and paid workers in cash to avoid taxes, Nahmias said.
The charges are not related to immigration raids at Pilgrim’s Pride plants.
Lee ADDS: If the employers that take advantage of these Illegal Aliens were to be held responsible for the retun fare, ICE expenses, additional pay to those Illegal Aliens and substantial fines, we might see a reduction in this type of activity!
