Hearing examines New Bedford immigrant raid

M.L.

Boston (AP) -- A commission formed by a special interest group to investigate immigration raids at a series of Iowa meatpacking plants in 2006 took testimony Monday about last year's raid at a New Bedford leather goods plant.

Some 361 workers at Michael Bianco Inc. were detained, splitting up families and creating other hardships as federal ICE agents enforced immigration laws.

The bent of the United Food & Commercial Workers union, which represented many of the Iowa workers, was evident in the name of the civilian group it created: National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights.

Among those testifying at the hearing Monday at the Statehouse were Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Murray said the United States is a nation of laws "and we need to ensure that all people are treated with dignity and fairness."

Kerry later recognized the good works of ICE, including a dozen pornography arrests and a $100 million fine it levied against a military data exporter in the weeks after the Bianco raid.

"But the way that they conduct workplace raids and detain people does not meet the standards of the United States of America," the senator said.

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