Thread: Pilgrim’s Pride Employees Busted in IA Hiring Scheme

Undercover Operation Cracked Illegal Alien Network

DALLAS (AP) - For years, federal agents had received tips alleging undocumented immigrants were working at plants owned by the Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., the nation’s largest chicken producer.

This spring, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Dallas acted on leads that pointed toward two of the company’s seven East Texas plants.

Undercover agents posing as illegal immigrants infiltrated an alleged network of job-seekers who paid hundreds of dollars for fraudulent identification while those responsible for hiring them looked the other way.

By the time the investigation wrapped up in December, agents had arrested 24 people, including:

- A Pilgrim’s Pride employee accused of dealing identification documents;

- A human resources employee at the company’s Mount Pleasant facility;

- Two other men agents say were part of the scheme to get identity documents for illegal immigrants.

Twenty other workers at Pilgrim’s Pride plants in Mt. Pleasant and Pittsburg, Texas, were accused of using social security numbers not issued to them.

The matter is expected to go to a federal grand jury later in January. But newly unsealed court documents laying out the government’s case offer a rare glimpse into an allegedly complicit circle of illegal workers, document dealers and trusted employees that made the scheme work.

It’s the latest effort by the government to pursue illegal immigrant workers and the employers who hire them by focusing on fraudulent identity documents and social security numbers. ICE agents arrested more than 1,200 workers at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants nationwide in 2006 as part of a similar investigation.

In the Pilgrim’s case, an affidavit by ICE Special Agent George Ramirez revealed the agency has received more than 75 calls since 2005 about illegal immigrant workers at the company’s plants. A review found 14 of the company’s human resources employees were suspected of knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants, Ramirez stated.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Jackson in Tyler said he couldn’t comment on whether the government is investigating Pilgrim’s Pride.

But Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for the Pittsburg-based company said Pilgrim’s Pride is not facing charges and is cooperating fully in the federal investigation. The company has about 55,000 employees and operates dozens of facilities mostly across the South, in Mexico and Puerto Rico.

“Our company is very concerned about any allegations of this type,â€

Great its working !!!

Ice has done a good job on this case

The companies human resources people mentioned in this article are all hispanic. They have no problems exploiting their own people for profit. They have no problems stealing social security numbers of US citizens. Pilgrim's Pride couldn't care less as long as they have the CHEAP labor.

I know why the illegals are here, I can understand what motivates greedy corporations. What I cannot understand is how in the world someone who professes to want to "protect" illegal aliens, has no problem exploiting them for profit!!!

Good job by ICE, but this needs to go deeper. I cannot beleive that there are not high level managers and executives in this company who are just as culpable. Until the government begins to prosecute them, this problem will occur again and again and again.

Great news! Now, when are they going to investigate PP in NC?