Thread: Meat packers seek and get solidarity

March 5, 2007


Meat packers seek and get solidarity
to resist impact of immigration raids

BY HELEN MEYERS

DES MOINES, Iowa—Thousands of workers and their relatives affected by large-scale immigration raids at six Swift meatpacking plants across the United States are seeking and getting solidarity from fellow workers, trade unions, churches, and others to resist the impact of the government attack.
Hundreds of the nearly 1,300 meat packers arrested December 12 here, and in Colorado, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, and Utah, remain imprisoned. The government has indicted 274 of these workers on state or federal criminal charges, including "identity theft." Nearly 600 have been deported. Some 120 were released because of hardships, such as illnesses or pregnancies, but have to report to a judge for a court hearing.

In Marshalltown, Iowa, supporters of the affected workers have raised $85,000 to aid their families in paying legal bills, rent, utilities, and food as the workers or their relatives try to find new jobs and to be reunited with their loved ones.

A front-page article in the February 12 Des Moines Register was headlined, “If fiancée is deported, I’ll go too, Iowan says.” It told the story of Dulce Hernández Vazquez, a cafeteria worker arrested at the Swift plant in Marshalltown. After her arrest, Hernández, who has two children, was moved from Iowa to Georgia and is now in jail in Gadsden, Alabama. Her fiancé, Robert Braun, is an animal health technician for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Marshalltown plant. He and immigration attorney Ta-Yu Yang are fighting to have Hernández returned to Iowa and released until her court hearing.

Braun said he has lost “all confidence in the government," adding that he is angry at his fiancée's treatment. "There’s no impartialness to all this,” he said. “It's amazing how my view of the justice system has changed.”

In Cactus, Texas, there has been an outpouring of support from throughout the region for the arrested immigrants, according to an article in the February 11 Dallas Morning News. Carol Valdez, an administrator at a local church organizing solidarity donations, said that contributions have come from Oklahoma, Kansas, and across Texas. Many of the workers at the Cactus plant are originally from Quichi, Guatemala, and Chihuahua, Mexico.

Some 3,050 workers were employed at the Cactus plant prior to December 12, of whom 292 were arrested and many were immediately deported. Other workers have reportedly left Cactus to seek work elsewhere in the region.

Imelda Maldonado has been at the plant for more than 25 years and is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 540. She told the Dallas Morning News that production at the Cactus plant has slowed down. The company is hiring more people, she said, but has not replaced all those who were arrested or left. Maldonado said Swift has hired a number of Sudanese workers, who commute daily from Amarillo, Texas.

The February 26 issue of the Nation magazine ran an article on the impact of the raids in Greeley, Colorado.

Local radio announcer Elda Gamez told the Nation that the response to the raids by working people and others in the area continues to build. “All this stuff has made one great change," said Gamez. "That change is unity. We were hit with a very low blow, but it served us well, and we’ve gotten support from people we’ve never heard from before.” An organizing center set up at one of the local churches has reportedly raised $80,000 in contributions. Child care and other services have been set up to ensure that families can remain in the area.

Some of those deported after the December raids have already returned to the United States to find new jobs and be reunited with their families. The Nation interviewed one worker in Greeley who had worked at Swift since 2001. He was arrested December 12, held briefly in an El Paso, Texas, jail, and then “dumped across the border into Juárez,” Mexico. After visiting his hometown, the worker and seven others who had worked at Swift and had been deported returned to Greeley.

According to the Nation, the worker arrived at his Greeley trailer 22 days after being arrested, and was reunited with his family, which includes three children who are between one and eight years old. "I would do it again tomorrow," said the worker, whose name is withheld to avoid reprisals by the government. "And tomorrow and the next day."

Isn't it nice to know these people have already came back to be with their loved ones. It seems they need another raid in this town soon.

(read their related articles on this website at the bottom of site.)

http://www.themilitant.com/2007/7109/710904.html

Braun has it wrong. American citizens are the ones who have lost all confidence in government.

All right, I have had it with these dam churches they are mixing in politics should they not lose their tax exempt status due to this, Crocket, what say you about this?

I already called ICE at 1-866--347-2423 and reported that these some of these stinking criminals have already returned illegally to this country and are ILLEGALLY looking for work and are being aided and abetted by other criminals and by their accomplices.

I told them that they need to go back to the towns where they raided the Swift plants and go back and check to see if these criminals have returned illegally.

They said thank you.

Well I believe if they are caught again it is a felony now and they are not eligible for cititizenship, or that is what I understood, but then Alvira has been deported before and she is waiting for amnesty, so I'm confused!! can't they do anything right and were is the damn border patrol, doesn't seem like they had to hard of time getting back in does it?

Some of those deported after the December raids have already returned to the United States to find new jobs and be reunited with their families. The Nation interviewed one worker in Greeley who had worked at Swift since 2001. He was arrested December 12, held briefly in an El Paso, Texas, jail, and then “dumped across the border into Juárez,” Mexico. After visiting his hometown, the worker and seven others who had worked at Swift and had been deported returned to Greeley.According to the Nation, the worker arrived at his Greeley trailer 22 days after being arrested, and was reunited with his family, which includes three children who are between one and eight years old. "I would do it again tomorrow," said the worker, whose name is withheld to avoid reprisals by the government. "And tomorrow and the next day."

This is outrageous, all the while they are in essence flipping Americans and our laws off AND showing us they can do what they want. whether we like it or NOT over and over again! Even more disturbing the churches are aiding and abeting their criminal behavior and our government turns a blind eye!!!!

In Marshalltown, Iowa, supporters of the affected workers have raised $85,000 to aid their families in paying legal bills, rent, utilities, and food as the workers or their relatives try to find new jobs and to be reunited with their loved ones.

$85,000 is more than enough money to fly them home. They need to be reunited with their families in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Being illegal is still a crime. DEPORT THEM NOW!

BY HELEN MEYERS

DES MOINES, Iowa—Thousands of workers and their relatives affected by large-scale immigration raids at six Swift meatpacking plants across the United States are seeking and getting solidarity from fellow workers, trade unions, churches, and others to resist the impact of the government attack.

I'm thinking DHS should be checking this nut job writer out. The U.S. government enforced the law of the people of the country in the meat packing plants. This is government attack?