Thread: MO: 100 Suspected Illegal Workers Arrested

100 Suspected Illegal Workers Arrested


May 23, 1:13 AM (ET)

By MARCUS KABEL

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - Federal immigration agents raided a poultry plant Tuesday morning and arrested more than 100 workers who are believed to be illegal immigrants.

Most of those arrested at the George's processing plant in rural Butterfield were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, said Pete Baird, an agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations office in Kansas City.

The arrests were part of a probe into identity theft and false documents, including stolen Social Security numbers, allegedly used by illegal immigrants, Baird said.

Three people pleaded guilty this year to Social Security fraud as part of the same investigation, and one person has been indicted, Baird said.

The arrested workers are being taken to detention facilities in Kansas City, St. Louis and Wichita, Kan.

"These work site enforcement actions help reduce the job magnet that encourages aliens to enter the country illegally," Baird said.

Several workers were released because they are the sole caregiver of a child, Baird said. They will be required to appear later for a court hearing, he said.

George's is a regional poultry processing company based in northwest Arkansas. Several hundred people worked at the Butterfield plant in southwest Missouri, authorities said.

The plant manager's office referred reporters to corporate headquarters in Rogers, Ark., for comment. A spokesman at George's Inc. could not immediately be reached for comment.

ICE spokesman Tim Counts said no charges have been filed against George's and declined to say whether the company knew it was hiring illegal aliens.

Federal agents have conducted several mass arrests since the April 2006 raids at pallet-maker IFCO Systems at 40 sites nationwide.

There have also been large raids at meatpacker Swift & Co., poultry plant Crider Inc. and leather factory Michael Bianco Inc. Nearly 3,000 suspected illegal workers have been arrested in dozens of states in all. There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.

Social service advocates said the March arrests at the Michael Bianco factory in New Bedford, Mass. created a humanitarian crisis, with some children left with no one to care for them.





http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070523/D8P9SRB00.html

11 More Charged in Immigration Sweep

Thursday, May 31, 2007 @04:37pm

Eleven more people face immigration violation charges following last week's immigration sweep at George's Processing Plant in Butterfield, Missouri.

The eleven are among 136 people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who served two search warrants at the plant.

Four of the eleven face charges for falsely claiming to be citizens of the u-s. All four had also been previously ordered to leave the country, but failed to do so.

According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri;

"Arrested during the execution of search warrants on Tuesday, May 22, 2007, at George's Processing, Inc., in Butterfield, Mo., were German Puentes-Mendoza, 25, Elziar Oswaldo Vasquez-Estrada, 19, Gabriel Lopez-Alvarado, 38, Carmen De Leon-Guzman, 28, Luis Geyman Fernando-Diaz, 33, Bernabe Lopez-Alcon, 35, Delfino Lopez-Gomez, 33, and Henry Anibal Oxlaj-Ixmay, 23, all citizens of Guatamala, and Armando Valdez-Ayala, 26, Oliver Sosa-Martinez, 23, and Maria Hinojosa-Pedroza, 25, all citizens of Mexico.

Puentes-Mendoza, Vasquez-Estrada, Lopez-Alvarado and De Leon-Guzman were each charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield with falsely claiming to be citizens of the United States in order to gain employment. According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Puentes-Mendoza was ordered removed from the United States but, after being denied an appeal on July 22, 2004, failed to appear for removal as ordered.

According to affidavits filed in support of the criminal complaints, Vasquez-Estrada and De Leon-Guzman were ordered removed from the United States in absentia (Vasquez-Estrada on April 4, 2006, and De Leon-Guzman on Aug. 3, 2000) but failed to depart as ordered. According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Lopez-Alvarado was granted voluntary departure from the United States until April 13, 2005, with an alternate order of deportation should he fail to depart as required.

Each of remaining seven defendants was charged separately in criminal complaints filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield with reentering the United States after having been deported. According to affidavits filed in support of those criminal complaints, Fernando-Diaz was deported on June 24, 2005; Lopez-Alcon was deported on Oct. 28, 2005; Lopez-Gomez was deported on Feb. 3, 2005; Oxlaj-Ixmay was deported on Jan. 4, 2007; Valdez-Ayala was deported on Dec. 3 and 31, 2004; Sosa-Martinez was deported on May 27 and June 3, 2005, and on April 7, 2006; Hinojosa-Pedroza was deported on Nov. 29, 2000."


A total of 25 people now face charges stemming from those arrests in Butterfield last Tuesday.

http://www.ozarksfirst.com/content/fulltext/?cid=7971

Warning...Warning... Incoming sob stories about fear, church sanctuary, "separated families" and left behind anchor babies.

Oh, and the part MSM always leaves out... America's laws are being enforced, immigration attorneys flocking to the area to make a buck, Americans replacing the illegal alien work force and criminals being caught and punished for the crimes they have committed.

Dixie