Thread: Swift workers start court appearances

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/l ... 73,00.html

Swift workers start court appearances
Bail reaches $30,000 in ID theft, forgery, impersonation cases
Darin McGregor © News

Detainees who were arrested during a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant are unloaded from a van for their advisement hearing at the Weld County Courthouse in Greeley on Thursday.


By Chris Barge And Rosa Ramirez, Rocky Mountain News
December 15, 2006
GREELEY - It's as if a chunk of the tightly knit Hispanic community has disappeared.

Family members remained mostly in the dark Thursday about the fate of 261 workers arrested this week at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant as part of a six-state sweep of illegal immigrants by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.

Ironically, the fraction of detainees who appeared to be in the most trouble with the law were the easiest to find Thursday.

Dressed in bright orange jail garb, five of the 16 detainees now in Weld County's custody appeared in court.

Among them was Maria Fraga- Loredo, 29, who worked at Swift for about four years.

Of the hundreds in custody after Tuesday's raid, Fraga-Loredo was one of 25 whom Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck had agreed to prosecute for crimes beyond being in the country illegally. She was charged with identity theft, forgery and criminal impersonation.

Fraga-Loredo's sister, Elisa Alvarado, a 27-year-old legal U.S. resident, began to cry when she saw her sister being escorted out of the courtroom in shackles.

"Why do they have to have them like that?" she said of the jail uniforms and chains.

Fraga-Loredo's husband waited anxiously at their Greeley home Thursday, afraid to show up for his wife's court hearing because he is in the country illegally.

Fidel spoke on the condition that his last name, which is different from his wife's, is withheld.

Fidel said he felt as if someone kicked the air out of his stomach when he heard that his wife of 10 years was facing charges for using someone else's identity.

Other than a traffic ticket, she had never come into contact with law enforcement before, he said.

"How could they do that to her? Don't they see that she has children?" he said.

Fidel said that the couple moved from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to Kansas about nine years ago and to Greeley nearly five years ago. They have three U.S.-born children, ages 8, 6 and 5.

Fidel said his wife got her job at Swift by using a Colorado driver's license that she obtained with a birth certificate and Social Security card she had bought in Kansas for $600 from a friend of his.

The documents said that her name was Vanessa Caraveo. The seller guaranteed that they would work.

Fidel said he and his wife never asked whether the documents were stolen. Turns out, Caraveo is a real person.

Fraga-Loredo had been working at Swift & Co. for the past four years and was earning $11 per hour, Fidel said.

"Her only crime was working to support her children," Fidel said. "I haven't been to work since the raid because I'm trying to help her. But I want you to know that we've never asked the government for help, even when we had nothing to eat."

Like many of the other ICE detainees in Greeley, Fraga-Loredo was being held on $30,000 bail, though a federal hold would prevent her from getting out of jail if she came up with the money.

Other detainees are due in Weld County Court today.

Elsewhere in Greeley's Hispanic community, frustration remained high as most of the other detainees were presumed to be at ICE holding facilities around Denver.

ICE officials would not say where the workers were being held, or how many of them had already been deported to their home countries.

"All I can tell you at this stage is this is an ongoing investigation," ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said.

Local authorities were able to shed some light on the detainee's whereabouts.

It appears that all of the 261 Swift workers arrested were initially bused to holding cells in the Denver area.

"Nobody came directly to the jail" after the raid, Weld County Jail Bureau Chief Rick Dill said. "Everybody went to Denver and went to the Federal Center."

But because there weren't enough beds, some were soon sent elsewhere.

In all, 61 detainees were bused to the Park County Jail in Fairplay, where they arrived about 4 a.m. Wednesday, Park County spokesman Steve Groome said.

The Park County sheriff brought in extra staff to handle the detainees, who had to be held in cells separate from the general jail population, as per the county's contract with ICE.

"That was a monumental task," Groome said.

The kitchen wasn't open yet, and the prisoners were hungry.

"I heard something about immediately getting them some Cheerios to eat," Groome said. "I saw 20 or so being processed and they were all young gentlemen, very well-behaved, just sitting quietly and, I'm sure, wondering what their fates were."

By noon that day, ICE had returned for 38 of the detainees. And by the afternoon, all of them had been taken away to an undisclosed location, Groome said.

"I think they were still processing people to take them in even as the bus was arriving to take them back," he said.

Meanwhile, ICE officials called Weld County deputies late Tuesday night and told them they needed to transfer 14 of the people picked up in the raid to the jail in Greeley overnight, Dill said.

By Wednesday, ICE had picked up two more former Swift workers on warrants and delivered them to the jail to be processed on criminal charges, Dill said.

"All of what ICE brought us were over and above what we normally get," Dill said. "We got our butts kicked."

"Her only crime was working to support her children," Fidel said. "I haven't been to work since the raid because I'm trying to help her. But I want you to know that we've never asked the government for help, even when we had nothing to eat."

Here we go again......no, the crime committed was not working to support her children....Her crimes are illegal entry and Identity Theft.....These people need be educated on what crime is......and our government needs correction...because basically the illegals are whining because they cannot get away with the crimes anymore.....that they were allowed to get away with for years....so because they were allowed to get away with them for years they think...IT MUST NOT BE CRIME.

Ma Barker had children also.

The ability to have children has nothing to do with breaking the law and it is not a good reason to let them off. These people put their own children at risk and I think they have all these children so that they won't be deported and it allows them to "get more."

I am immune to the emotional blackmail that is constantly used because they have children.

Most of the American citizens that have been put out of work by illegal aliens have children also and their children are also citizens of this country, just in case someone tries to overlook it.

I would like to know how much welfare fraud has been uncovered in these raids. The women who say they are single parents in order to get SSI and WIC for their citizen children, could be the same ones that have been screaming in the streets because their working husbands have been arrested. I think the tip off is when the wife and the husband have different names.

The husband should be picked up also.

Originally Posted by Newmexican

I would like to know how much welfare fraud has been uncovered in these raids. The women who say they are single parents in order to get SSI and WIC for their citizen children, are the same ones that have been screaming in the streets because their working husbands have been arrested. I think the tip off is when the wife and the husband have different names.

Yes good question, I would like to know also as I am sure many hard working American taxpayers would.

NewMexican wrote:

The ability to have children has nothing to do with breaking the law and it is not a good reason to let them off. These people put their own children at risk and I think they have all these children so that they won't be deported and it allows them to "get more."

I am immune to the emotional blackmail that is constantly used because they have children.

I agree completely and immumity to this type of emotional blackmail is what is going to get our country back on track

Warning! Incoming Sob Stories

Dixie

Originally Posted by Dixie

Warning! Incoming Sob Stories

Dixie

Took the words right out of my mouth Dixie. I am sooooooooooo sick of these stories. When are the real victims, those whose identities were stolen by illegals, those who have been murdered or molested by illegals and other victims of crimes of illegals going to have the spotlight?

Other than a traffic ticket, she had never come into contact with law enforcement before, he said.

There goes the real person's driving record down the tube.

The documents said that her name was Vanessa Caraveo. The seller guaranteed that they would work.

Five suspects arrested in the ICE raid on the Swift & Company beef plant on Tuesday are escorted from District Court in Greeley, Colo., on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2006, after a first appearance on forgery and criminal impersonation charges. From right to left are Maria Soto, Vanessa Caraveo, Jennifer Rosa, Jose Hector Miramontes, and Otilio Torres Rivera. Associated Press © 2006 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=6629071

Vanessa Caraveo aka Maria Fraga- Loredo

hey Fidel, if thats your real name...
wahhhhhhhhh wahhhhhhhhh wahhhhhhhhhhhhh wahhhhhhhhhh

Tell it to someone who really cares. your screwed pal.
your friends used forged and stolen identitys to get work ILLEGALLY in this country. that I was born in and you werent

go back to your own counry pal