Thread: Fearing illegal-immigrant raids, firms surrender labor data

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.c ... &ran=13575

Fearing illegal-immigrant raids, firms surrender labor data
By STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS, The Virginian-Pilot
© February 3, 2007
Last updated: 11:30 PM


Over the past seven months, businesses, including Smithfield Foods, have quietly cooperated with the Department of Homeland Security in a little-known program to identify and root out illegal immigrants working in the United States.

The department has told companies such as Smithfield, which rely heavily on immigrant labor, that it would spare them from federal raids if they would voluntarily hand over their workers' documents to be scanned for fraudulent information.

Smithfield, one of the largest companies based in Hampton Roads, has participated since June, with dramatic results. Twenty-one workers at its largest plant, Smithfield Packing Co. in Tar Heel, N.C., were arrested last week after the government scrutinized forms submitted by the company. In November, the plant said it fired 75 immigrant workers for providing false information, triggering a walkout by nearly 1,000 employees.

Dennis Pittman, spokesman for the plant, called Smithfield's participation "a business decision" resulting from an implied threat. "We knew raids could be a possibility," he said. "We felt going this way, there would be less of an effect."

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security have asked companies to join the ICE Mutual Agreement Between Government and Employers program, known as IMAGE, operated by the department's Immigrations and Customs Enforcement division.

It asks businesses to submit all I-9 employee eligibility verification forms to ICE for an audit and to "ensure the accuracy of their wage reporting" by verifying workers' Social Security numbers, according to a description of the program.

An ICE spokesman said IMAGE is another step in the administration's drive to tighten work-site enforcement as more than a million immigrants illegally cross the Mexico border each year in a quest for jobs.

"The upside for those who ... participate is that they're better equipped to know whether their work force is legal, and ICE is less likely to be on their doorstep unexpectedly, interfering with their business," said Matthew Allen, acting deputy assistant director for infrastructure and fraud in the agency's investigations division. "It's an investment in making sure that their work force is secure."

The government's efforts under IMAGE are much broader and deeper than those under another program, Basic Pilot, in which businesses voluntarily enroll.

Companies that take part in Basic Pilot can check the Social Security numbers that job applicants provide against a national database of Social Security and immigration records. In contrast, IMAGE covers all members of a company's work force and does a more extensive scrub of records to determine if a worker is in the country illegally or is using fraudulent documents.

Allen would not disclose the names of companies recruited into IMAGE, saying only that dozens have taken the steps toward enrollment.

In Smithfield's case, ICE alerted the pork producer by e-mail of discrepancies in employees' records. A company spokesman said 541 workers in the plant's work force of 5,000 are facing termination because of discrepancies on their job applications.

"This is terrible for everyone - us, the employees, their families," said Pittman, the company spokesman for the Tar Heel plant. "It's heart-wrenching. These are our better people. These are folks who have been with us seven, eight, nine years. They are good people. People have been in tears. Fifty or so people have quit."

Smithfield received an added benefit from cooperating with the government, according to the union that is seeking to organize the Tar Heel workers.

Officials of the United Food and Commercial Workers union said the company submitted the names of organizers as a tactic to intimidate some workers and get rid of others. They noted that the National Labor Relations Board has found that Smithfield worked to undermine union elections by intimidating employees in 1994 and 1997.

"Most of the leaders of a walkout in November are on their list," said Leila McDowell, a spokeswoman for the UFCW. "Whether ICE is consciously in collusion or not, Smithfield could very easily manipulate the process and can use it as a tool to intimidate and threaten workers, which it has done in the past and been found to have done so illegally."

Smithfield strongly denied the allegation.

A number of businesses said they have no intention of joining IMAGE, citing the disruptive action at Smithfield.

The arrests in North Carolina were the second unpleasant surprise in two months for firms that say they have tried to work with immigration enforcement agencies to hire legal workers, only to be raided.

In December, ICE rounded up 1,297 illegal immigrants in six states in raids on meatpacking plants run by Swift & Co. of Greeley, Colo. Swift's president and chief executive, Sam Rovit, criticized the arrests, saying the company has "played by the rules and relied in good faith" on the Basic Pilot program since 1997.

A Swift spokesman said the company is not participating in IMAGE, preferring to stick with Basic Pilot.

Swift has a chorus of supporters among businesses that say they hire immigrants to do work that American citizens do not want, for pay that they will not take.

"There is no upside in signing up for new obligations," said Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy and a former policy chief in the immigration agency.

Businesses "end up not only with the current obligations of the law but new requirements," he said.

He compared it to "advising average citizens to drive up to their local police station to get frisked."


The Washington Post and staff writer Philip Walzer contributed to this report.

I wonder if Bo Pilgrim of Pilgrims Pride Chicken is participating in the IMAGE program.

Wonder how many Texas politicians accept money from companies that are not participating in the Basic Pilot or preferably the IMAGE Program.
I think that is something to consider at election time.

"This is terrible for everyone - us, the employees, their families," said Pittman, the company spokesman for the Tar Heel plant. "It's heart-wrenching. These are our better people. These are folks who have been with us seven, eight, nine years. They are good people. People have been in tears. Fifty or so people have quit."

No one would be crying, no one would be quitting, no one would be upset, no one would have to be replaced... if the employer had acted on the first no match letter and fired the illegal alien years ago. These people aided illegal aliens and now they are pulling on our heart strings. These employers unlawfully gave these criminals jobs and now they want us to feel sorry for everyone involved.

I don't think so. The consequences of breaking the law is punishment and justice. I don't have any pity for those that are finally getting what they deserve.

Dixie

Dixie wrote

No one would be crying, no one would be quitting, no one would be upset, no one would have to be replaced... if the employer had acted on the first no match letter and fired the illegal alien years ago. These people aided illegal aliens and now they are pulling on our heart strings. These employers unlawfully gave these criminals jobs and now they want us to feel sorry for everyone involved.

This is the same tactic all of them use, cry 'Poor me' and challenge the constitutionality of our laws. Send them all home and levy heavy fines against those who would hire them.

A company spokesman said 541 workers in the plant's work force of 5,000 are facing termination because of discrepancies on their job applications.

How long will it take Smithfield to get rid of these 541 people if they fire 75 at a time and hire them all back?

A guy here at work slipped on the ice and needed medical help. Somewhere in the mix his wallet went missing. Although we joked about it, there was a worry in the back of his head that someone would find it and use it for ID theft such as some of these cases did, and at least he didn't have a hispanic name which would make it harder for this type of ID theft. But he was a young man with dark hair and so, the possibility is there.