Bishop labels meat-plant raids as ‘inhuman'

http://www.chieftain.com/life/1166264878/2

By MARVIN READ
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
December 16, 2006

The Diocese of Pueblo's Bishop Arthur Tafoya Thursday lashed out against Tuesday raids by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency of meat-packing facilities in Greeley and in five other states.

Tafoya called the raids "inhuman" and lamented dangers to "the safety and well-being of the children and families torn apart" by the raids.

Hundreds of people were arrested at the half-dozen plants and many face immediate deportation or other legal sanctions. According to ICE chief Julie L. Myers, that agency had uncovered a scheme in which illegal immigrants and others had stolen or bought the identities and Social Security numbers of U.S. citizens and lawful residents to gain employment with Greeley-based meat processor Swift & Co.

Myers told reporters that immigration officials were “looking very aggressively” at people who may have sold the identities to the workers and that ICE had uncovered several different rings that may have provided illegal documents.

Tafoya was unmoved by the government rationale for the raids, noting that "It is regrettable that instead of choosing to implement comprehensive immigration reform that can be just and equitable, we have chosen the enforcement path as our response to the immigration problem."

"As I have stated before," he said, "I believe that we need a strong, clear and fair immigration policy" . . . (that) "must serve our country's security and prosperity and at the same time be based on the moral values on which all our lives must ultimately rest."

Tafoya called current immigrations laws "unworkable" and said the raid technique "is just an example of how our policy has failed by only emphasizing enforcement and forgetting about the unfortunate consequences of an enforcement-only policy."

Focusing on the immigrants' choice to gain employment to "do what is required to provide for the needs of his or her children" he challenged "the way the laws are presently written" and the consequent need for undocumented immigrants to acquire "false documentation in order to support themselves and their families."

"It is wrong to report this as ‘identity theft,’ which is a conscious preying on people by thieves," he said.

A just law, the bishop said, "is meant to benefit, not to enslave humankind. Undocumented workers have human dignity and human rights that should be respected at all costs."

The Swift processing facilities raided Tuesday were in Greeley, Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.

The meat-processing company defended itself: “Swift has never condoned the employment of unauthorized workers, nor have we ever knowingly hired such individuals,” Swift & Co. President and CEO Sam Rovit said.