Thread: Iowa: Dozens Arrested In Illegal Immigration Raid

Dozens Arrested in Illegal Immigration Raid

By Ashley Hinson

DES MOINES (AP) - Fifty-one workers were arrested during an immigration raid at six DeCoster egg farms in Wright County. Those farms are where agents have conducted several other raids in recent years.

Tim Counts is spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He says the workers, most of them from Mexico, have been transported to various detention facilities in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and elsewhere. A judge will decide their fate at deportation hearings in Omaha, Nebraska.

Federal agents conducted the 2.5 hour raid Wednesday. Counts said some of the workers, including some juveniles and parents, were released and told to appear for their scheduled hearing.

Austin ``Jack'' DeCoster, founder of DeCoster Farms, has previously been investigated by ICE for using illegal workers. Agents have raided his farms at least four times since 2001.




http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/9780722.html

Austin ``Jack'' DeCoster, founder of DeCoster Farms, has previously been investigated by ICE for using illegal workers. Agents have raided his farms at least four times since 2001.

This business owner should be fined and thrown in jail. He was caught 4 times!

4 times. Why is he still in business?

Serial law-breakers should not have immunity from following the law.

Kudos to ICE though - please continue and intensify your efforts to find, arrest and deport illegal aliens.

Justice Dept.: Prosecute and imprison illegal employers!!

It's great that they raided the farm, but they need to concentrate on construction sites, meatpacking plants, restaurants, etc. Why farms?

Ostrich

They can ship them back to Mexico as quickly as they were shipped to Iowa. NO EXCUSES!

Thank you ICE for finally doing your job.


BUILD THE FENCE

OBEY OUR LAWS

MILITARY AT THE BORDER

INTERIOR ENFORCEMENT

Friday September 14, 10:13 am ET

ICE Arrests 51 Workers at DeCoster Egg Farms in Iowa


DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Fifty-one workers were arrested during an immigration raid at six DeCoster egg farms in Wright County, where agents have conducted several other raids in recent years, federal officials said Thursday.



The workers, most of them from Mexico, have been transported to various detention facilities in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and elsewhere, said Tim Counts, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A judge will decide their fate at deportation hearings in Omaha, Neb., Counts said.

Federal agents conducted the 2 1/2-hour raid Wednesday. Some of the workers, including some juveniles and parents, were released and told to appear for their scheduled hearings, Counts said.

Austin "Jack" DeCoster, the founder of DeCoster Farms, has previously been investigated by ICE for hiring illegal immigrants. Agents have raided his farms at least four times since 2001, the last one in June 2006 when about three dozen workers were detained.

Counts said ICE is investigating the incident but has not charged DeCoster in connection for the latest raid.

"We go where the evidence leads us," Counts said. "It's too early" to know if charges will be filed.

Forty-three of the workers arrested Wednesday were from Mexico, four were from Guatemala, three from Honduras and one from El Salvador, Counts said.

The DeCoster family, among the nation's largest egg producers, has also had environmental problems in Iowa. In the late 1990s, Iowa classified DeCoster as a habitual violator of environmental regulations for problems that included manure runoff into waterways.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070914/ia_decos ... .html?.v=1