Immigration bust targets meat plants
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 12, 2006
GREELEY, Colo. – Federal agents investigating identity theft arrested immigrants at meat processing plants in six states Tuesday, shutting down production as workers’ relatives scrambled to bring proof they were legally employed.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said an unknown number of workers were arrested on immigration violations and criminal warrants stemming from a nearly yearlong investigation.
ICE chief Julie Myers told reporters in Washington that agents had uncovered a scheme in which illegal immigrants and others had stolen or bought the identities and Social Security numbers of possibly hundreds of U.S. citizens and lawful residents to get jobs with Greeley-based meat processor Swift &Co.
Six Swift processing facilities were raided Tuesday, in Greeley; Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn., representing all of Swift’s domestic beef processing capacity and 77 percent of its pork processing capacity.
No charges had been filed against the company.
“Swift has never condoned the employment of unauthorized workers, nor have we ever knowingly hired such individuals,” Swift &Co. President and CEO Sam Rovit said in a statement.
Since 1997, Swift has been using a government pilot program to confirm whether Social Security numbers are valid. Company officials have previously said one shortcoming may be the program’s inability to detect when two people are using the same number.
