Thread: After the raids: The whining begins

By Michelle Malkin · December 13, 2006 09:42 AM
First, check out this reaction to yesterday's illegal alien worker raids published in the Des Moines Register:



Caption: Hector Angel, a Marshalltown business owner, states his point of view about the raid as ICE buses roll away from the plant.

A natural response from open-borders zealots who've been giving the finger to immigration law for years. Right on cue, labor groups are demanding a moratorium on deportations and open-borders Catholic leaders are protesting.

In Denver, 9News reports on the negotiations between the Swift & Company's Greeley, Colorado and the feds to make sure that embarrassment was kept to a minimum. How nice:

9NEWS has learned that last week Swift & Company went to court in Texas to file a restraining order to stop the raid from happening.

9NEWS has also learned the raid was scheduled to happen Monday, but an agreement was made between Swift & Company and the Federal Government to delay the raid because Japanese businessmen, who are potential customers, were visiting the Greeley plant.

E.P. at Slapstick Politics has a Colorado round-up.

The New York Times, like many other outlets, runs a large photo of arrested workers' families in tears. Not pictured are any of the hundreds of American victims of illegal alien identity theft whose Social Security numbers were stolen to enable the illegal alien workers to work.

Who will tell their stories?

Here's a bit more detail on the identity theft scheme from the local Greeley, Colo. paper. One of the victims was a Border Patrol agent!

Affidavits on 25 arrest warrants were filed about 4:30 p.m. Monday. Each one sought a Swift employee on suspicion of forgery and criminal impersonation. According to the affidavits, special agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Denver office investigated Swift since summer.

On July 31, ICE special agent Richard Goldsberry received copies of employment documents for all employees working for Swift as of July 18. Agents used information from those documents to track down workers who had used someone else's information to get jobs. Agents were often able to compare driver's license photographs of U.S. citizens with those working at Swift under the same name.

Federal Trade Commission records provided another clue for investigators. Records often listed residences in states such as Texas, Utah and California for employees working in Greeley. In many cases, the people who actually live in those distant locations had filed complaints after they learned from a credit agency or the Internal Revenue Service of back taxes or jobs with companies where they'd never worked.

Swift accepted Luis J. Pena's application on Oct. 30, 2003, and made copies of his Social Security card and Colorado driver's license. The problem was, ICE agents found, the real Pena lives in Arizona. He works in Nogales as a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Pena told agents he requested a copy of his credit report in 1998 or 1999 and learned someone had used his information to get jobs with companies he'd never heard of.

A woman claiming to be Theresa Sanchez provided Swift with a Social Security card and Colorado I.D. on April 8, 2005. The FTC shows Sanchez actually lives in Texas and filed a complaint after she got a letter from the IRS. The letter said the agency was holding her $5,400 refund because she had failed to report $120,000 in wages since 1996. Sanchez told ICE she had never lived in Colorado. The FTC said someone used her information for jobs, college and to receive unemployment benefits.

Sanchez told an agent she stands about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. The woman suspected of impersonating her is 5 inches shorter and 10 pounds lighter. Sanchez said the suspect may have gotten her personal information from an ex-husband.

The cases go on and on.

Chris at Lonewackoshares my skepticism about the raids and has a suggestion:

Whatever the motivations behind these raids, they're too little too late. And, they may have been conducted as an attempt to show that the Bush administration is serious about enforcement, as a way of getting "comprehensive immigration reform". There's probably very little chance that Teddy Kennedy and Bush were actively colluding on the raid, but both are serving the same master: "comprehensive immigration reform" (i.e., a massive amnesty).

Such raids need to be encouraged, but the Bush administration also needs to know that we're on to what is most likely a game they're playing. My original thought was to send a cookie to the White House as a bit of positive enforcement, but that's probably not a good idea.

However, perhaps some brave soul could send the White House a McDonalds gift certificate. Apparently the smallest amount you can get online is a $5 book with five certificates, although one of their restaurants might have smaller denominations. I'd suggest sending the smallest coupon possible (preferably something good for only an ice cream cone or half a McRib or something), thanking them for their however belated attempts to enforce our laws. And, informing them in the most condescending-but-polite terms possible that if they keep doing a good job they'll get the rest of the book. (And, of course, if they can't keep the cert themselves they should give it to one of the homeless people just a few blocks from the White House). That plan is only for the brave, of course, and don't tell them I gave you the idea.

Ed Morrissey warns:

The government has let private industry off the hook for their use of illegal immigrants for too long, and it's good to see that change. However, we had better be prepared for the economic damage this could cause.

Yes, it's something I've repeated often. We have all been immunized from the consequences of lax immigration enforcement. On 9/11, 3,000 people paid for some of the costs with their lives. Higher meat prices, more expensive hotels, and costlier produce are nothing compared to what many othervictims of open-borders chaos have suffered.

Time to stop whining and suck it up.

http://www.michellemalkin.com/

You have just got to love Michelle Malkin .

Now we have a name of this hostile person, ICE oh, ICE is this business owner legal ? Hector Angel, a Marshalltown business owner.

It's my sincere hope that the media starts talking to the victims of identity theft and that they are allowed to give impact statements at any trial that is held. Supporters of illegals often claim that being here is merely a statutory violation, a victimless act, but here again we see what a lie that turned out to be.

Swift knew they were in trouble before ICE ever showed up.

More details:

http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/2006 ... S/61213005

Swift estimated raids could affect 40 percent of work force



The Associated Press
December 13, 2006

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DENVER — Swift & Co. had estimated that up to 40 percent of its 13,000 workers could be removed in immigration raids, costing the company up to $100 million, according to court documents.

After a closed hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson in Amarillo, Texas, rejected the Greeley, Colo.-based company’s request to stop the raids, saying that an injunction blocking the raids was contrary to the public interest.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Tuesday raided facilities in Greeley; Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn., representing all of Swift’s domestic beef processing capacity and 77 percent of its pork processing capacity.

The company touts itself as the world’s second-largest meat processor with sales of about $9 billion.

Agents reviewed documents at Swift’s other two plants and found no significant numbers of suspected illegal immigrants and did not propose raids, according to court documents.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many workers were detained following the raids but more information was expected to be released by federal officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, on Wednesday.

Swift filed its request Nov. 28 after ICE informed it of a planned “mass removal” of unauthorized workers at the six plants. Swift argued that its agreements with ICE as part its participation in the Basic Pilot program, which permits employers to check a federal database to see whether Social Security numbers are valid, prevented ICE from disrupting business by conducting workplace raids.

ICE argued that the agreements did not prevent enforcement action and that “Swift had no right to continue to utilize thousands of illegal workers in violation of the immigration laws.”

Swift has used the Basic Pilot program since 1997, but company officials have for years raised concerns about the ability to detect when two or more people are using the same number.

In July, the White House touted the program as a “clear and reliable way to verify employment eligibility” as Congress sought a comprehensive solution to illegal immigration.

“Swift has played by the rules and relied in good faith on a program explicitly held out by the President of the United States as an effective tool to help employers comply with applicable immigration laws,” Swift CEO and President Sam Rovit said in a statement.

ICE officials rejected Swift’s alternate plan of visiting one plant at a time over a 10 week to four-month period, saying such a move would tip off other workers.
In rejecting Swift’s request for an injunction, Robinson noted that the Basic Pilot program had weaknesses and that the government has known since at least August 2005 that it could not detect identity theft.

Rovit said “Swift has never condoned the employment of unauthorized workers nor has it ever knowingly hired such individuals.”

Company officials did not return a call left after hours seeking comment on their estimate of workers who might be removed.

ICE said it found about 170 people who were engaged in identity theft at Swift plants.

In one case, a Texas woman was contacted by the IRS seeking back taxes for unreported earnings, while a North Carolina woman filed a complaint after receiving a Social Security earnings report stating that her brother, who died in February 2005, was still working, according to arrest affidavits filed in Colorado district court.

In both cases, the Social Security numbers were being used by people working at Swift’s Greeley plant, according to the affidavits.

Between Oct. 19 and Nov. 17, Swift voluntarily interviewed 450 suspected employees at several of its plants and found that between 90 to 95 percent were not who they said they were, according to court documents. Four hundred were fired or quit and the company stopped that self-review at ICE’s insistence, the documents said.

The injunction request was filed in Amarillo, Texas, near where Swift’s Cactus plant is located.

Swift’s court action was not filed on behalf of workers. The United Food and Commercial International Workers union said it would ask federal judges in all six states for injunctions to halt the raids. Union spokeswoman Jill Cashen said attorneys were gathering details before filing the requests.

The nationality of the immigrants was not clear Tuesday night, but the Mexican government released a statement pledging to ensure that any of its citizens in the raid have “their human rights fully respected, and are given all the necessary assistance, orientation and consular protection.”

In a statement, the department asked U.S. authorities to allow Mexican representatives to visit detainees, and announced plans for visits to all six meatpacking plants.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., an outspoken advocate of stricter immigration laws, praised the raids. He said Swift officials should be prosecuted if they were involved in hiring any illegal immigrants.

“My hope at this point is that the U.S. government has the courage to prosecute the Swift & Co. executives who may have been complicit in their hiring,” Tancredo said in a statement.

Community leaders held a candlight vigil near a federal complex in suburban Denver and denounced the raids as splitting families and arresting some Americans based on the color of their skin.

“ICE has overstepped the bounds of decency and respect,” said Fidel “Butch” Montoya, spokesman for Confianza, a coalition of Latino ministers. “Families have been separated and confusion reigns as families try to understand what has happened.”
———
Associated Press writers Linda Franklin in Dallas and Kim Nguyen in Denver contributed to this report.

“ICE has overstepped the bounds of decency and respect,” said Fidel “Butch” Montoya, spokesman for Confianza, a coalition of Latino ministers. “Families have been separated and confusion reigns as families try to understand what has happened.”

No wonder they're confused after a bunch of twerps telling them nobody is illegal. Law enforcement is a shocking concept for them. You lied to them Montoya. Take the blame.

Michelle Malkin is one of my heroes.

W

Check ou the Discuss section under this article on Yahoo. The people are really tired of this illegal invasion.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_ ... on_raid_13

Check ou the Discuss section under this article on Yahoo. The people are really tired of this illegal invasion.

That is a busy board. Must of 50 new post in the 5 minutes I was reading there.

Originally Posted by AlturaCt

Check ou the Discuss section under this article on Yahoo. The people are really tired of this illegal invasion.

That is a busy board. Must of 50 new post in the 5 minutes I was reading there.

They don't mind speaking out.

hey illegals! if you're reading this,we AMERICANS are TIRED of your bs,your disease,your ruining our neighborhoods,your pestilence,your ruining our hospitals,your welfare......we are personally going to kick your butts out of OUR country! since our estranged President and company wont fix the problem...WE will! dont mess with Texas!

That is what happens when there are too many criminals in one place. There is strength in numbers, and they feel that they are above the law.
Michele Malkin rocks!