Thread: TN:Ongoing criminal enterprise

Ongoing criminal enterprise
BY ROBERT MOORE, Tribune Staff Writer

Tucker wants organized crime laws applied to Koch Foods

Morristown City Council member Mel Tucker wants city government to take on Koch Foods with civil version of the same laws that were enacted to combat organized crime.

Tucker’s view is that Koch Foods’ alleged employment of illegal aliens qualifies it as an ongoing criminal enterprise and makes it a fair target for a civil Racketeer, Influenced and Corrupt Organizations lawsuit.

Proving a criminal enterprise that — through a pattern of illegal activity — affects interstate commerce is the main hurdle prosecutors or civil plaintiffs must clear in a RICO case.

Tucker maintains that illegal immigrants allegedly employed at the Morristown chicken-processing plant are putting onerous financial burdens on city and county government, and he wants Koch Foods to pay in a RICO judgment.

Specifically, Tucker says, illegal aliens and their children tax law enforcement, the school system and hospitals.

"All of those costs are being passed off to Morristown and Hamblen County because Koch Foods isn’t checking for illegals," Tucker alleged.

In a written statement in January, David Wilds, Koch Foods complex manager, said the company insists on "scrupulous compliance with all laws as a matter of internal policy."

"The immigration laws require us to verify the eligibility of each prospective employee to legally work in the U.S., but they also restrict the means we can use to verify eligibility," Wilds wrote.

"These requirements must be reconciled with laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race and national origin, which prohibit such practices as subjecting applicants with Hispanic surnames to additional scrutiny," Wilds added.

Wilds says that Koch Foods does more to verify the residency status of its new employees than federal law requires.

Koch Foods employs approximately 1,000 workers, most of whom are Hispanic.

Tucker advanced the idea of suing Koch Foods Tuesday afternoon during a council work session. Council members don’t vote or take formal action at work sessions. Tucker asked that the matter be placed on the agenda as soon as possible.

Council member Rick Trent appeared enthusiastic about the proposal. Morristown Mayor Sami Barile didn’t attend the work session, but if any other council members had reservations about the proposed course of action, they kept it to themselves.

Tucker wants City Attorney Dick Jessee to research the matter, then report whether he believes Koch Foods’ alleged employment of illegal aliens could be a RICO target.

If Jessee determines that Koch Foods’ alleged actions meet RICO muster, Tucker wants to locate a law firm that will pursue civil damages on a contingency basis.

In other words, if the city wins the lawsuit, the attorneys would take a healthy cut of the winnings. If the city loses, city government would not be financially impacted.

Tucker says he doesn’t relish pursuing a lawsuit against a Morristown employer, but adds that he sees no other option.

He maintains that the state and federal governments appear complicit in illegal immigration. He went so far as to say the Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce has refused to police one of its own.

"If anyone has a problem," Tucker said, "I’m sorry."

City council member Frank McGuffin, a former chamber board chair, brusquely asked what the chamber could possibly do about one of its members allegedly violating federal immigration law.

Thom Robinson, chamber president and CEO, sided with McGuffin.

"The chamber of commerce is neither a law enforcement agency or the Better Business Bureau," Robinson said this morning. "Our mission is to create jobs for area citizens through bringing in new business and industry, and to be an advocate for businesses in the Lakeway Region."

If city government chooses to pursue RICO litigation against Koch Foods, it will have a roadmap, of sorts.

Individuals in other states have filed successful civil RICO lawsuits in alleged illegal immigration-related cases.

Under RICO criminal — not civil —statutes, transporting, harboring or aiding illegal aliens to enter the United States is a prosecutable offense.

Tucker, a former FBI agent, believes the same standards would apply in civil RICO cases, and says Koch Foods is a fair target.

In recent weeks, at least six individuals have reported their Social Security numbers were being used illegally by employees of Koch Foods in Morristown or Chattanooga, according to police.

Between 2005 and 2007, 39 Hispanics who identified themselves as Koch Foods employees have been booked into the Hamblen County Jail, records indicate.

Only two gave corrections officers a Social Security number. It remains unclear whether officers attempted to verify the numbers.

Hamblen County jailers do not attempt to verify the places of employment for Hispanics or other inmates, so the possibility exists that the inmates could have lied about their connection to Koch Foods.

Tucker says the two illegal document mills busted in Morristown are a symptom of the city’s illegal-immigration problem, not a cause.

He contends that if local employers weren’t willing to accept forged Social Security and alien registration cards they strongly suspected were forged, these types of operations could not flourish.

http://www.citizentribune.com/news/view ... ticle=8668

Koch Foods employs approximately 1,000 workers, most of whom are Hispanic.

Where's the federal mandate for racial equality? Tenessee is FAR from the border and not known to be a majority Hispanic population. That is till the illegals came.

You know I was thinking back on times and remember when Calif. said schools had to be racially equal what happened to that madate.. and they bussed kids from one school to another ..