Thread: SC poultry plant manager faces immigration charge

SC poultry plant manager faces immigration charge

Thursday, April 16, 2009

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The manager of a South Carolina poultry plant has been indicted on a charge he knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

Prosecutors say Barry Cronic began hiring illegal immigrants at Columbia Farms in Greenville in 2000, and kept hiring them until a raid last October. The raid found more than 300 people working at the plant who were in the county illegally.

Personnel manager Elaine Crump also was indicted Wednesday on a similar charge. She already faces 20 counts of telling workers to use falsified immigration documents.

Court records didn't show an attorney for Cronic, and a phone listing couldn't be found. Crump's lawyer was handling a case out of state and couldn't be reached.

North Carolina-based House of Raeford owns the plant. The company said it doesn't knowingly hire illegal immigrants and is cooperating with investigators.

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April 16, 2009 - 10:11 a.m. EDT

http://www.dailyadvance.com/news/state/ ... 49856.html

North Carolina-based House of Raeford owns the plant. The company said it doesn't knowingly hire illegal immigrants and is cooperating with investigators.

And knowingly this NC company did use E-Verify.

Friday, Apr. 17, 2009
Manager charged after immigration raid
More than 300 workers deported
By Jeffrey Collins

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COLUMBIA -- The manager of a Greenville poultry plant has been indicted on a charge he knowingly hired illegal immigrants as the investigation into hiring practices at Columbia Farms took another step up the management ladder.

Barry Cronic began hiring illegal workers in 2000 and kept hiring them until a plant raid in October 2008, according to an indictment handed up Wednesday.

Last October, federal agents raided the plant during a shift change. Employees screamed and scrambled to get away, but agents blocked the entrances and found more than 300 workers who were in the U.S. illegally, most of them from Mexico or Central American countries, authorities said.

Personnel manager Elaine Crump also was indicted Wednesday on a similar charge. She already faces 20 counts of telling workers to use falsified immigration documents and has pleaded not guilty.

Cronic's indictment marked another step up the organizational chart at Columbia Farms. The plant is owned by House of Raeford. Prosecutors have refused to say if the probe would eventually end up at corporate headquarters.

"This isn't the end of the investigation. We're following the information where it goes," assistant U.S. attorney Kevin McDonald said.

Court records didn't show an attorney for Cronic, and a phone listing couldn't be found. Crump's lawyer was handling a case out of state and couldn't be reached.

Most of the more than 300 illegal workers swept up in the raid have been deported, McDonald said. He added that the exceptions are about 20 people who have pleaded guilty and are serving time in prison for criminal charges such as using illegal documents and false Social Security numbers or re-entering the country illegally.

Officials with House of Raeford didn't return a phone call seeking comment. The company has said before it doesn't knowingly hire illegal immigrants and is cooperating with investigators.

The Raeford, N.C., company processes chickens and turkeys in plants in North Carolina, South Carolina and Louisiana. Its Greenville plant stayed closed for less than a month after the raid.

The S.C. raid wasn't the only big roundup of illegal immigrants in 2008.

In August, nearly 600 suspected illegal workers were detained at a Mississippi electrical manufacturing plant in the largest single-workplace immigration raid in U.S. history. Last May, federal immigration officials detained 389 people in a sweep through an Iowa plant of Agriprocessors Inc., one of the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouses.



http://www.thesunnews.com/news/local/story/864208.html

Employers who hire thru States' Employment Security Office have no worry.

BIG LIES to the American People.!

The States' Employment send Immigrants into the workplace WITHOUT
checking their legal status (they do not E-VERIFY - illegals).

Check IF the employers are hiring via the State Employment Office these employers don't have to worry about being charged with breaking IMMIGRATION LAWS.

The States are break the laws for the EMPLOYERS!