US Immigration officials arrest 62 at pork plant
Wed Apr 4, 2007 1:47pm ET


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Federal immigration agents arrested 62 sanitation workers during a Wednesday morning raid at Cargill Inc.'s pork plant in Beardstown, Illinois, some on identity theft charges and others for being illegal immigrants, immigration officials said.

The arrests disrupted meat production at the plant for about three hours, but no Cargill employees were arrested, immigration and company officials said.

The raid was smaller in scope than one four months ago that temporarily shut down six Swift & Co. meat plants and prompted calls from the meat industry for changes in federal immigration laws to make it easier to hire immigrant workers.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said those arrested on Wednesday were sanitation workers employed by Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Quality Service Integrity Inc., which was hired by Cargill.

"The investigation, which is ongoing, began in January. The ICE investigation revealed that most of the QSI work force was composed of illegal aliens," ICE said in statement released at a news conference.

QSI was cooperating with ICE officials, but had no other comment, said Bill White, QSI's director of human resources.

Some of those arrested were soon released to care for their children or for health reasons, ICE officials said. Continued...

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