Thread: Meatpacking plants raided; rights advocates urge phone calls

Meatpacking plants raided; rights advocates urge phone calls
By Workday staff
12 December 2006 WORTHINGTON - Immigration authorities have detained an undisclosed number of workers at Swift meatpacking plants in Worthington, Minn., and five other states, prompting the United Food & Commercial Workers to seek a federal injunction to stop the raids. Immigrant rights advocates have launched a call-in campaign to Congress.
"Essentially, the agents stormed the plants, many of them in riot gear, in an effort designed to terrorize the workforce," said Mark Lauritsen, director of the UFCW Food Processing, Packing and Manufacturing division.

"This kind of action is totally uncalled for," said Lauritsen. "It's designed to punish workers for working hard everyday, contributing to the success of their companies and communities. They are innocent victims in an immigration system that has been hijacked by corporations for the purpose of importing an exploitable workforce."

The UFCW represents workers at the Swift and Company plants, as well as other major packers around the country.

The raids are being conducted by Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at Swift plants in Worthington, Minn.; Cactus, Texas; Grand Island, Nebraska; Greeley, Colorado; Hyrum, Utah; and Marshalltown, Iowa. All the facilities except Hyrum are unionized. Operations at the facilities have been temporarily suspended, the company announced.

Reports to the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network from Worthington describe a highly charged, emotional scene.

"UFCW representatives report that there are ten ICE buses, estimated to fit 400-500 people, at the Swift meatpacking plant waiting to take people away," Alondra Espejel reported in an e-mail to network activists.

"According to Mike Potter, UFCW President in Worthington, 'children are crying, families are crying, I have no words to describe how this is tearing our community apart.'"

Immigration lawyers Susana DeLeon and Bruce Nestor told the Freedom Network that people are being detained on the basis of where they work and their skin color – not on individual suspicions – and both immigrant workers and permanent residents are among those taken away.

"We are advising all the detained workers to exercise their right to an attorney and remain silent until they confer with counsel," UFCW Director Lauritsen said. "These actions today by ICE are an affront to decency."

ICE said the raids are part of an investigation into people illegally selling false documents. Swift issued a statement saying the raids violate a 10-year-old agreement between the company and federal government under which the company said it has "played by the rules" to comply with immigration laws.

The Freedom Network is urging people to call or e-mail U.S. Senators Norm Coleman and Mark Dayton and ICE officials to protest the raids and demand an immediate moratorium on deportations.

Contact information:
Senator Mark Dayton, 612-727-5220, 202-224-3244
Email form http://dayton.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Senator Norm Coleman, 651-645-0323, 202-224-5641
Email form http://coleman.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fus ... ontactForm

ICE's Field Director Mark Congemi, 952-853-2681

I sent emails to Dayton and Coleman encouraging them to support ICE's actions and the deportation of illegal aliens involved.

"We are advising all the detained workers to exercise their right to an attorney and remain silent until they confer with counsel," UFCW Director Lauritsen said. "These actions today by ICE are an affront to decency."

Their actions of crossing our border rather than dealing with their problems at home are an affront to decency. I saw the interiview with one of the detainees on TV. One of them said "you know, you know what you gotta do", meaning when it comes to working. They should know what to do in their own country---FIX IT!

What ever they do! Don't release them!

Dixie

www.ufcw.org is this groups websight

Flood em with mails telling them to shut up and stop whining about illegals working and taking american jobs and stealing american identities

i sent then an email on their sight and quoted a couple of statements in regard to what they said... here it is


TO: Mark Lauritsen, director of the UFCW Food Processing, Packing and Manufacturing division.

i find your statement regarding the raids at the SWIFT plants in the six states on tuesday to be very off. First of all as someone who was born in the USA i want to know how your union can condone ANY company with hiring illegal immigrants with forged documents including forged drivers license and forged social security numbers. The fake names these people were using could have been yours or mine. And heaven forbid if the IRS sends us Americans nots saying we owe back taxes on a job I never worked at and find out later that my information has been used by anyone who should not be in this country in the first place. Stealing a persons identity is a violation of the law and ICE and other agencies after performing a 10 month investigation decided MONDAY was the day to move only to be asked by SWIFT not too because some Japanese were in Greeley the day before.

WHile these people might be hard workers as your statement might say, they still broke the law by taking names of REAL AMERICAN CITIZENS. I personally do not have a problem with people coming here legally but I do have a BIG problem with people coming here ILLEGALLY. I hope that you feel the same way.

AND these people are not victims of an immigration system because they broke the immigration laws in the first place.

IF you will notice by all the polls taken lately, the American people have no problem with LEGALS being here and having the proper papers. and by the way, the only comprehensive policy is to secure the border, raid the job sights and keep that going. its those who cross the desert or the river and avoid detection and hide that are the people in the wrong, NOT ICE. and these same Americans are tired of illegals.

ANd im betting that when things come out that you will find most of these people are using someone elses name, DL#, SSI# to illegaly obtain work in this country, They do not belong here and IF ICE hits more mean packing places then so be it. IF this is what America has to do in order to regain control of the border, and keep these people out, when word south of the border hear about raids at job sights, they might not be so eager to come.

if you are so interested in protecting workers rights,. why dont you worry about AMERICAN jobs being outsourced or wages continuing to go down instead of staying steady or increaing.

Here in Colorado and eleswhere, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union rely heavily on public support durring negotiations. Email them and let them know you will cross lines for there unamerican worker activities www.ufcw.org

Sent my email to Dayton & Coleman saying I was a happy to finally see ICE at work!!!!

I for one applaud ICE for doing their job. They just need to make sure that they are deported if found guilty!!!!!!!!

There may have been children crying, families upset etc., but the fact remains...if they were here legally and had not stole innocent people's social security numbers and drivers license numbers...if they had followed our laws...then they wouldn't be in the situation they are in now, would they? If we break a law...we are punished, fined, or we go to jail. . Do they expect special treatment because they are illegal and stealing other people's identity?

My husband is from Canada and he is going through LEGAL channels to become a US Citizen. It is expensive, but well worth the effort of doing it legally. The peace of mind he has knowing that he can sleep comfortably at night and knowing that he will one day be a citizen of this great country! It is well worth the effort, expense and the exhaustive length of time it takes!

Andres Guerrero, who teaches Spanish at Aims Community College, joined the protesters. He said, “In ten years we’re going to take over the southland, trust me. “This is our land and always will be our land.”

This is a professor at AIMs college that quoted this in the paper. I wrote to the college and told them that this professor should be removed.

They responded by saying it was free speech and it was not the position of the college.

I think a letter campaign to the college asking for his removal should be started.

Michael