Thread: Union cites court order

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/l ... 91,00.html
Union cites court order

Lawyers: Taking detainees out of state a violation

By Myung Oak Kim And Fernando Quintero, Rocky Mountain News
December 16, 2006

The union representing workers at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley accused immigration officials Friday of violating a court order by sending workers arrested in the Tuesday raid out of state.
Exact numbers are unavailable because immigration officials have refused to give information about those arrested in the sweep. But local immigration lawyers said that at least 50 and possibly more than 70 Central American natives, most of them from Guatemala, were sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement jail in El Paso, Texas.

Those workers, among more than 260 arrested at the Greeley plant, were sent out of state in part because they refused to voluntarily leave the country, said Laura Lichter, a Denver immigration lawyer and liaison to ICE for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Lichter said she received that information from ICE lawyers.

She said late Friday that the detainees in Texas were going to be shipped back to Colorado, possibly because of the court order.

Leaders of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 contend that ICE was ordered Wednesday to keep those arrested at Swift within the jurisdiction of the local federal court. Texas is in another jurisdiction.

U.S. District Judge John L. Kane signed an order Wednesday instructing ICE to show cause for the raid by Monday. The order was issued in response to a complaint filed Wednesday by the union alleging that workers were being held illegally and against their due process rights.

"ICE was clearly in violation of Judge Kane's order," said Ernesto L. Duran Jr., president of Local 7.

Duran said his union has been trying to identify and locate workers arrested in the raid, but still does not know where many workers are being held.

He does not know who was sent to Texas.

ICE officials have refused to give information about the identities and whereabouts of the people arrested during the massive operation Tuesday at six Swift plants, where agents detained nearly 1,300 workers.

When asked about the union allegations, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said, "ICE does not comment on pending litigation."

Rusnok said in an e-mail that he expects a breakdown of information on the arrests to be disclosed Monday.

Local 7 hired three immigration lawyers this week to represent union members apprehended in Greeley.

As of Friday evening, lawyers Christina Fiflis, Rania Gazawi and David Simmons are representing about 40 Swift workers - all except one being detained at the ICE jail in Aurora, said Fiflis. A female worker is being held in Texas.

As of Thursday, ICE had not set a bond for many of the Swift workers in custody, which means they can't leave jail, local lawyers said.

Fiflis said she filed 23 requests for bond for her clients Friday morning.

The earliest any of those arrested and detained in Aurora can post bond and get released is Monday. Many bond hearings are scheduled for Tuesday, she said.

Fiflis said some of her clients are legally in the country and that others should be able to remain in the country.

About half of those arrested in Greeley are Central American, including people who escaped civil war in Guatemala and may be eligible for asylum.

Megan Hall, a lawyer with the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network in Westminster, said she gave a legal rights presentation to about 50 Swift workers at the Aurora ICE jail. She said about 70 of the Swift arrestees are being detained at that jail.

Hall estimates that more than 70 Mexican nationals voluntarily went back to Mexico and that up to two dozen of those arrested were quickly released because of hardship to their children. Those who have been released still face deportation charges.

Lichter said a plane filled with Swift workers left Tuesday night from the Denver area for Mexico.

Also Friday, five Swift workers went before a judge to hear state criminal charges related to identity theft that were filed against them. They are among 10 who have been charged.

Arrest warrants have been issued for 18 more workers charged with stealing the identities of other Americans in order to get work at Swift.

ICE officials said they raided the Swift plants to crack down on a large-scale identity theft ring.

So far, only a small fraction of those arrested across the country have been charged with such crimes.

Duran lashed out at ICE, saying, "ID theft is just government spin aimed at covering brutal immigration raids."

"The federal government should not have terrorized 13,000 Swift workers across this country and 1,500 in Greeley for a handful of legitimate arrests," he said.

Lichter also contends that ICE tried to spin the arrests as an identity-theft crackdown.

"The fact is it's not," she said. "It's a raid."

Judge John L. Kane
Alfred A. Arraj United States Courthouse A838 / Courtroom A802
(303) 844-6118

Local 7R, Northcentral Region
7760 West 38th Avenue
Suite 400
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033-9982
303-425-0897
http://www.ufcw7.com

i have already left messages at both the phone numbers listed.
i told the judge that ICE is a federal thing and they dont need to answer to you or anyone with that Union since the union is only trying to protect those people who work at swift and are illegal they are looking out for their memmbership and the money they get from them.

i told the so called president at the union that if i find out my information was used at any swift plant their butts will be sued for everything they got especially for aiding and abetting a criminal who has violated US law at least three times. one entering illegally. two purchasing false and forged documents, and assuming someones identity when they know they are not that person