A Federal Immigration and Custom Enforcement agent searches an unidentified man, right, during a raid of a Swift and Company Beef Plant in Greeley, Colo.

USA Today: Immigration raid linked to ID theft, Chertoff says

More than 1,200 people were arrested for alleged immigration violations in Tuesday’s six-state raid on meat processing plants and about 65 of them face criminal charges, including identity theft, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said today.

Federal officials said Operation Wagon Train netted 1,282 individuals, the largest such crackdown on illegal immigration at a single worksite.

“This is not only a case about illegal immigration, which is bad enough,” Chertoff said at a news conference in Washington. “It’s a case about identity theft and violation of the privacy rights and the economic rights of innocent Americans.”

He said the cases involved the identify theft of hundreds of people.

“These individuals suffered very real consequences in their lives,” he said. “These are not victimless crimes.”

The target of the raids, Swift & Co., one of the world’s largest meat processors, shut down nearly all its U.S. operations after the crackdown.

The crackdown, involving 1,000 federal agents, occurred at Swift’s headquarters in Greeley, Colo., and its plants in Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn. Chertoff said the raids capped a 10-month investigation.

Swift, which has not been charged, denied knowledge of the alleged scheme.

An unidentified Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agent watches the back of the Greeley Beef Packing Plant for Swift & Co. in Greeley, Colorado December 12, 2006. ICE agents raided Swift & Co. meat plants in six states on Tuesday, temporarily shutting them down, as part of a 10-month investigation into identity theft involving illegal immigrants, federal officials said.

Right, the Swift & Co. corporate officers did not know about the employment of illegal aliens. The federal government has been LAX in allowing large companies to get away with hiring (of course for cheaper wages) people that are in the United States illegally and have no right to work.

“Swift has never condoned the employment of unauthorized workers, nor have we ever knowingly hired such individuals,” Swift President and CEO Sam Rovit said in a statement.

This is extremely doubtful.

The Swift & Co. website is here.

Today’s news release from Swift is here.

The question Flap has: Why wasn’t this done previously?

Swift and its corporate management must be held accountable as well. Maybe a little time cuddling with Bubba would assure that these corporate “FAT CATS” like CEO Sam Rovit hire by the laws of the United States.

Stay tuned…….

Swift & Co. said it would reopen its meat plants after Immigration and Customs Enforcement ends its operation, but that production would depend on the number of workers arrested or detained. The sites raided handle all of Swift’s domestic beef processing and 77% of its pork processing.

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