http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=14072

Publish Date: 1/14/2007

DA considers plea deals in raid


By Douglas Crowl
The Daily Times-Call

GREELEY — Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said Friday he’s considering plea deals for the 18 workers arrested on suspicion of identity theft during a federal raid of a Greeley meat-packing plant last month.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested 265 workers Dec. 12 at the Swift & Co. plant in Greeley as part of a six-state raid that resulted in 1,282 arrests.

While many were arrested on suspicion of illegal immigration charges and deported, immigration officials said the raids targeted workers who used stolen identity documents to gain employment at the plant.

ICE has said about 220 of the 1,282 arrested face identity theft or other criminal charges.

Weld County filed 30 arrest warrants for identity theft crimes related to the Swift plant before the raid and jailed 18 identity theft suspects after the arrests. All 18 have since appeared in court.

“We should be making our offers here in the next few weeks,” Buck said.

On Friday, a federal judge ruled that immigration officials had to determine the exact locations of all 265 people arrested in the Greeley raid by Jan. 22, in response to a lawsuit filed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

Buck said he doubts the ruling will affect his cases in Weld County.