Thread: One-third of Kreider Farms workers had invalid documents

One-third of Kreider Farms workers had invalid documents


Updated Jan 21, 2012 22:27
By SUZANNE CASSIDY
Staff Writer

Kreider Farms learned in September that it was being audited by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

When the results of the audit came back earlier this month, Terri Turner, Kreider Farms' human resources manager, said she was shocked: About 100 employees — one-third of the Kreider Farms workforce — had invalid documents, meaning that they were ineligible for employment in the United States.

The discrepancies in their paperwork varied, and included names that did not match Social Security numbers, and alien registration cards that had invalid numbers.

The employees were not arrested as a result of the audit.

Under the Obama administration, the focus has switched from workplace raids rounding up illegal workers, to audits intended to identify employers who knowingly employ such workers.

Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that auditing work-site compliance is meant to get at the "root cause" of illegal immigration.

A news release from Homeland Security maintains that the strategy "substantially reduces the incentive for aliens to enter the United States illegally."

The work-site audits examine the I-9 employment-eligibility forms that an employer has on file. Those forms must be completed by every U.S. employee.

As of November, ICE had conducted 2,496 I-9 audits in 2011, a dramatic increase from 2008, when 503 audits were done.

Turner said that Kreider Farms is not facing any fines or charges, despite the large number of workers found to have invalid documents.

Turner said she takes care to follow "the letter of the law" with employee documentation, and she said the audit found her records were very complete — the problem was with the documents she'd been given. "We are not required by law to be document experts," Turner said.

Nevertheless, Turner said, she's not leaving anything to chance. Kreider Farms now is using E-Verify, a free federal program that enables employers to check online whether employees are authorized to work in the United States.

On Tuesday, Turner and other Kreider managers met with the employees identified in the audit to notify them that they were being terminated. The employees were working in the egg facilities and dairy farm of the Manheim-based, family-owned business.

If they could produce documents showing their eligibility to work, they would be allowed to continue working, while their documents are re-evaluated by DHS, Turner said.

She said Saturday that about 10 employees have given her updated documentation and she is hopeful others will, too.

Still, last week is one Turner hopes she never will have to repeat.

"These employees, this is very difficult for us," Turner said. "I can't express how sad this is. Most have been with us anywhere from three to 10 years, so we are saying goodbye to family and it's very difficult."

Turner added: "I do not defend their actions. Kreider doesn't defend their actions."

But, she said, "these are still people who have really served us very well, and they have worked hard for us."

Kreider Farms was not required to dismiss the workers immediately. "The DHS has been very gracious with us. We do have live animals ... we have to make sure our animals are cared for," Turner said.

The employees will be let go over the next couple of weeks. They will be given four weeks' pay, Turner said, noting that many of the employees have children — some of whom were born here — and Kreider Farms wanted them to be able to feed their families.

She said the employees also have been given the names of immigration attorneys who may be able to help them with the process of acquiring legal documentation.

At least one of the employees was an assistant manager. Most of the employees are from Mexico, Turner said.

"We do hire a lot of foreign employees. I know that's something agriculture is criticized for," Turner said.

But in the past, she said, "I have not had American people wanting these jobs. ... Farming is really hard work, and as a society, Americans have kind of gotten away from that a little bit."

The recession may have changed this, however: Last week, Turner began advertising for farm laborers to fill jobs that will pay between $9 and $14 an hour. She said she already has heard from "hundreds of applicants."

"We're being positive, positive about the outcome, the opportunity to give some people jobs," Turner said.

Lancaster Online

Last week, Turner began advertising for farm laborers to fill jobs that will pay between $9 and $14 an hour. She said she already has heard from "hundreds of applicants."

I'm sorry there aren't too many people who are going to turn their nose up to a job paying up to $14 an hour! I still say this is only 1/2 of the job... all those people who were working KNEW they were breaking yet another law. They should be prosecuted, not left to move on to the next job... or worse allowed to come back to their old job with NEW false papers.

Dismissed Kreider Farms worker 'disappear'

Sunday News
Updated Mar 31, 2012 17:40
Manheim







After an immigration audit by the feds at Kreider Farms in January, about 100 workers were found to have invalid documentation and were terminated.

No one seems to have followed where they went.

"I don't know," said Terri Turner, the business's human resources manager. "I have no idea."

The employees, most of whom were reportedly from Mexico, belong to a burgeoning immigrant population that makes up the bulk of the U.S. farm labor force.

Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said he could not confirm or deny the Kreider audit or discuss the fate of the workers.

Nor does Pennsylvania track them, said Michael Rader, executive director to the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee in the state Senate.

"That's one of the major problems with the system we have," Rader said.

When employers are audited and employees are fired, in many cases "that's it. Those 100 people ... they're on the street without a job.

"It's a major, major problem for agriculture" and part of the country's larger immigration policy dysfunction, Rader said.

Kreider Farms, a milk and egg producer in Manheim, was not fined as a result of the I-9 employment eligibility check, Turner has said, and no employees were arrested.

Discrepancies on the employees' papers included mismatches of names and Social Security numbers and invalid alien registration card numbers.

The discrepancies mean that the employees were not eligible to work in this country.

Feinstein said in January that stepped-up audits by ICE, an investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, were intended to address the "root cause" of illegal immigration.

ICE estimates that 11 million people live in the United States illegally.

According to a statement, the agency ousted 396,906 aliens from the country in 2011 and focuses its deportation efforts on "serious criminal aliens ... such as those charged with or convicted of homicide, rape, robbery, kidnapping, major drug offenses and threats to national security."





Read more: Dismissed Kreider Farms worker 'disappear' - News

No one knows where the dismissed workers went??? Who would have thought? <sarc>

thanks for the articles, they fit in well;

7 Million Illegal Immigrant Workers Forums for Justice - View Single Post - 7 Million Illegal Immigrant Workers http://bit.ly/hnHEbs

wonder what their wage rates were?