Thread: SC: More illegal farms employees arrested

Posted on Fri, Aug. 15, 2008
More illegal farms employees arrested
Federal probe of immigration crimes continues
By Franco Ordoez and Kerry Hall - McClatchy Newspapers

GREENVILLE --Federal agents have arrested five additional House of Raeford Farms employees and continue to search for others as part of their investigation into alleged immigration violations at the company's poultry plant here.

On Wednesday, Victor Cruz-Soto, Daniel Badillo-Baca, and Nain Zarate-Camarero were indicted on charges of using counterfeit IDs to gain employment, identify theft and making a false statement to a federal agency, according to federal records. The three men were arrested in July.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Federico Torres-Perez and Juan Francisco Martinez-Olivares last month on similar charges.

The plant's human resource manager, Elaine Crump, was also arrested last month on 20 felony counts charging that she instructed employees to use fraudulent employment eligibility forms.

In a February series on workplace safety in the poultry industry, the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported that some House of Raeford managers knowingly employed undocumented workers, according to five current and former supervisors and human resource administrators.

Former supervisors have said the plant prefers undocumented workers because they are less likely to question working conditions for fear of losing their jobs or being deported.

Since publication of the series, 11 House of Raeford employees have been arrested on immigration violations. Eight of the arrested employees, including Crump, are scheduled to be in federal court Tuesday for a pretrial hearing. Cruz-Soto, Badillo-Baca and Zarate-Camarero are to be arraigned on Aug. 28.

The three unlawfully obtained fake Permanent Resident cards and someone else's Social Security number with the intent to deceive and for the purpose of obtaining something of value between October 2006 and August 2007, according to federal documents.

House of Raeford has said it doesn't knowingly hire undocumented workers and regularly asks outside counsel to audit company records and hiring practices. "We take all necessary efforts to comply with applicable law, including immigration laws," the company wrote in a recent statement.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/l ... 55517.html

Former supervisors have said the plant prefers undocumented workers because they are less likely to question working conditions for fear of losing their jobs or being deported.

THERE IT IS IN A NUT SHELL. THIS IS ALSO TRUE OF LEGAL IMMIGRANTS THAT ARE HERE ON WORK VISAS. THEY ARE SCARED TO ASSERT THEIR RIGHTS. THAT IS WHY EMPLOYERS PREFER THEM BECAUSE THEY CAN DISREGARD LABOR LAWS AND WORKPLACE SAFETY LAWS. THEY CAN ALSO GET AWAY WITH PAYING BELOW THE MINIMUM WAGE AND NOT PAYING OVERTIME. THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH ALMOST ANYTHING.

I have read that the importation of illegal foreign workers over past decades has been a key strategy in U.S. business's plan to "break the back of the unions" which held considerable power nationally up until at least the early 1970's. Meatpacking plants used to employ U.S. workers in union-scale jobs which began at over $19.00 per hour, paid good medical benefits, and ensured safe working conditions because union safety inspectors went into the plants regularly as monitors. Now I believe they pay $9.00 per hour, "medical benefits" are provided at taxpayer expense at the local hospital emergency room, and there are no outside inspectors of the safety of the plants' working conditions. No surprise that one of the largest supporters of both increased legal immigration and amnesty for illegal aliens already in the country is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce!

You are correct Texas2step. It's enough to make one a vegetarian until these companies get all the criminals out of their company and their lawful acts together.