ICE Raids Pilgrims Pride Chicken Plants
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Federal Immigration Agents Raid Poultry Plant
Federal agents raided a north Arkansas poultry plant Wednesday morning after managers gave them a tip about some workers using stolen identity documents.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Temple Black tells The Associated Press that the arrests came as part of an ongoing criminal investigation that involved a Pilgrim's Pride poultry plant in Batesville. Black declined to say how many people were arrested or describe the nature of the investigation.
Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim's Pride spokesman Ray Atkinson says the company went to ICE agents with information about identity theft at the Batesville plant. The plant employs about 370 people. Atkinson said says no criminal or civil charges had been filed against the company.
ICE agents also conducted simultaneous raids at five other Pilgrim's Pride plant locations across the country, Atkinson said. Those included Chattanooga, Tennessee; Live Oak, Florida; Mount Pleasant, Texas; and Moorefield, West Virginia.
Black says ICE agents also served unrelated arrest warrants Wednesday morning in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Georgia, Black said.
Julie Myers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement assistant secretary, told The Associated Press that more than 100 people were expected to be arrested on criminal charges related to identity theft.
It was unclear how many more would be detained on immigration charges at the plants in Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee and West Virginia, she said. Agency spokeswoman Kelly Nantel had estimated at least 100 such administrative arrests.
Mexican consul Andres Chao said he called authorities Wednesday morning to remind them that the law entitled every citizen of his country to speak officials from the Little Rock consulate after their arrest.
Federal officials did not immediately give details or say if that operation was connected with the Arkansas raid.
Wednesday's raid is the first for ICE on an Arkansas poultry plant since a July 27, 2005, raid on a Petit Jean Inc. Poultry plant in Arkadelphia. That day, agents arrested 119 suspected illegal immigrants.
Pilgrim's Pride has about 55,000 employees and operates dozens of facilities, mostly across the South and in Mexico and Puerto Rico.