Posted on 12/12/2006 9:12:29 AM PST by VxH
Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents raided six Swift & Co. plants this morning with civil search warrants, arresting illegal immigrants working at the plants.
Barbara Gonzalez, an ICE public affairs officer, said they don’t have any numbers on how many people will be taken out of any of the plants and probably won’t have that number until Wednesday. She said Swift is not facing any charges right now, but the investigation is continuing.
“At this point, a civil search warrant allows us to search the premises to find any illegal aliens. The strong point here is that a lot of U.S. citizens and U.S. residents have been victimized ... by a large scale identify theft scheme,” Gonzalez said.
Agents entered the beef plant through a west door of the beef plant carrying up to 100 handcuffs on a chain at about 7:30 a.m.
Gonzalez said other plants entered included beef plants in Grand Island, Neb., Cactus, Texas and Hyrum, Utah, and pork plants in Marshalltown, Iowa and Worthington, Minn.
In other words, a crowd of foreign nationals in the country illegally are attacking a citizen of the United States and denying him his rights.
Gee, sounds like a functional definition of "terrorism" to me!
In other words, there may be prosecutions for those who have committed ID theft if the person who the ID was stolen from wants to prosecute and if it can be proven the illegal was responsible for committing the ID theft. Since it appears from this article that ICE is interested in the ID theft ring, I doubt these folks will suffer much more than an inconvience. What a crock? Illegal means nothing in our country. Laws only apply to those that some government agency wants to make them apply to.
Complete agreement here.
Then Congress can come back next year and coo sympathetically about the 'need' for a 'guest worker program' (we have about 20 or 30 of them now in the various visa programs).
It's a political stunt. Do it once, maximize the outcry (look forward to heart rending videos this evening on national news), then 'solve' the problem with surrender legislation.
El Ping.
What a sham!
Holy Hispanic Sex Change, Batman!!
Perhaps just softening up the public for amnesty?
what a shame, businesses voluntarily employing workers who are voluntarily employed have been shut down by big government....
Environmental Power Corporation's Microgy, Inc. Subsidiary Signs Letter of Intent with Swift & Company to Develop Waste-to-Energy Facility at Grand Island, Nebraska Beef Plant
"Randy Hull, President of Microgy, added, "We believe that there is the potential to recover energy values in excess of about 1,200,000 MMBTU's per year from multiple digesters within Swift's network of eight beef and pork processing plants and that this demonstrates the capability of anaerobic technology to generate significant amounts of energy from waste materials. That's equivalent to over 25,000 barrels per day of heating oil, and, as a result, projects like this have the potential to greatly reduce our dependence on imported hydrocarbons, whether they be oil or liquefied natural gas. We look forward to exceeding Swift's expectations with the initial project at their world class facility in Grand Island."
http://ir.environmentalpower.com/releaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=189567
"Swift & Company’s comprehensive work authorization diligence has included, since 1997,
participation in the federal Basic Pilot program – a voluntary, online verification system that
allows employers to confirm the eligibility of new hires by checking the personal information
they provide against federal databases. Today, Swift remains one of the very few employers to
use the system. All Company domestic production facilities have agreements in place with the
federal government under Basic Pilot – agreements which contain provisions that are supposed
to protect employers who properly comply with the Basic Pilot program from governmentinitiated
civil and criminal penalties.
Current law limits an employer’s ability to scrutinize the background and identity of new hires,
and – as Swift learned first-hand – employers can, in fact, be punished for probing too deeply
into applicants’ backgrounds. Specifically, in 2001 the Department of Justice’s Special Counsel
for Unfair Immigration-Related Employment Practices brought a complaint against Swift for an
alleged “pattern and practice” of document-based discrimination against job applicants, and
sought civil damages of $2.5 million. After two years of cooperation and negotiation, Swift
settled the claim, with no admission of guilt, for approximately $200,000."
http://www.swiftbrands.com/media/releases/2006_12_12_Swift_ICE_Interviews.PDF
What are they protesting? the identity theft charges will wash away in the amnesty process.
That ALSO explains their attitude toward ALL other kinds of property: if it ain't NAILED down and under the watch of ARMED GUARDS, they just assume you're cool with it being theirs.
Better idea: fine them $3,000/illegal, and have it be under a strict-liability provision (IOW, it doesn't matter if the ID he presented looked convincing, if he turns out illegal, you pay). Then have the fines go to the arresting office, with 10% as performance bonus to the arresting officer.
It is the day for the Virgin of Guadalupe, and many of the local bishops will probably start screaming.
A lot of moronic statements in this article, both from politicians and the company:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/10515789/detail.html
Just too many to quote them all!
One of the major issues is that there is identity theft involved. There will never be a dent made in illegal aliens if they raid 100 every couple months, but alerting everybody to the danger of identity theft might do some good.
He needs to be removed from office.
Note to ICE: Please hit all the Tyson chicken plants next. Also, start locking up CEO's and this stuff will stop tomorrow.
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