Free Republic

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Lawmakers are demanding answers following reports of a federal probe into the potential labor trafficking of migrant teens in Woodburn, Oregon. According to a report from Bloomberg Law, the federal government has launched a multi-agency investigation to determine whether unaccompanied migrant teens were released from government custody to labor traffickers who sent them to work on agricultural plants in Woodburn and other locations.“These kids are coming across the border seeking a better life, only to be sold into a trafficking situation? That’s incredulous and horrible,” Oregon Congressman Kurt Schrader told KOIN 6 News.The investigation comes as...

WASHINGTON–Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign on Thursday named, Lindy M. “Buddy” Pilgrim, the former president of poultry giant Pilgrim’s Pride, to lead its faith outreach initiative. Pilgrim, an ordained minister, will serve as National Director of the Faith and Religious Liberties Coalition. Along with leading the multi-billion dollar poultry company from 1993 to 1998, Pilgrim was a top bundler for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign, and has a long track record in conservative politics. “Now, more than ever, we must pick the one person who will most unwaveringly and fearlessly take a stand to protect our Judeo-Christian conservative...

PITTSBURG, Texas (AP) Pilgrim's Pride Corp. said Friday it will cut 3,000 jobs, or about 7 percent of its U.S. work force, as it shuts operations at three of its 32 chicken processing plants.

Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the nation's largest chicken producer, which has plants in northeast Georgia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, a move some analysts had predicted given the company's sagging debt load and volatile feed prices. The Pittsburg, Texas-based company sought the bankruptcy protection in a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas on Monday, saying that as of Sept. 27 it had $3.75 billion in assets and $2.72 billion in debts. Company spokesman Ray Atkinson said Pilgrim's Pride was reorganizing and not liquidating its assets, and the company will keep operating throughout...

Some Mount Pleasant businesses are feeling the effects from the Hispanic community after arrests earlier this week. Several dozen were arrested and many more were scared, as 38 workers at the Mount Pleasant Pilgrim's Pride plant now face indictments for working under stolen social security numbers. Mount Pleasant's population is 37-percent Hispanic, more than a third, and one business owner tells us, many of her customers are now scared to go out. "I was very very busy, and now I have noticed that there not many people coming in a lot of them have called and told me they are...

Lawyers suing Pilgrim’s Pride in Alabama said Wednesday’s roundup of undocumented employees at other company plants underscores their claims that the chicken-processing giant illegally is hiring immigrant workers to suppress wages. “Assuming that these individuals being detained are found to be in this country illegally, I think it reinforces our contention that there has been an ongoing practice of employing illegal workers at Pilgrim’s Pride,” said Jeremy Hutchinson, a Little Rock, Ark., attorney who is soliciting plaintiffs for a potential class-action suit against the company. Pilgrim’s Pride, the nation’s largest chicken company with more than 54,000 employees at 37 plants,...

Anxious phone calls poured in early Wednesday morning. Friends and relatives of the morning-shift workers at Pilgrim’s Pride chicken plants called Esteban and Netchie Lopez, co-owners of the Latin American Consulting Co., even before the immigration sweep started at 8:15 a.m. “There are many families that already knew that at any moment there would be raids,” Mr. Lopez said in Spanish. Tension and fear burned through Chattanooga’s immigrant community Wednesday after federal agents arrested more than 100 people at the downtown Pilgrim’s Pride plants. One second-shift worker at the company, worried that his aunt was caught in the raid, called...

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Federal immigration authorities raided seven Mexican restaurants in four states Wednesday, arresting 56 people, including 11 accused of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants. The immigrants were primarily undocumented Mexicans forced to staff the restaurants for long hours with little pay to work off smuggling fees and rent, authorities said. Ten individuals were arrested in Mentor and Willoughby in northeast Ohio, at Jalapeno Loco Mexican Restaurant and two houses, said Greg Palmore, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Two face charges of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants and the rest face immigration violations. The arrests began at...

Pilgrim's Pride Corporation on Wednesday announced it will close a chicken processing complex and six of its 13 distribution centers in the United States. None of the impacted facilities are in Texas. Company officials said the action was in response to what they deemed a crisis facing the U.S. chicken industry from soaring feed-ingredient costs resulting from corn-based ethanol production."Our Company and industry are struggling to cope with unprecedented increases in feed-ingredient costs this year due largely to the U.S. government's ill-advised policy of providing generous federal subsidies to corn-based ethanol blenders," said Clint Rivers, president and chief executive officer....

DALLAS (AP) - For years, federal agents had received tips alleging undocumented immigrants were working at plants owned by the Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the nation's largest chicken producer. This spring, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Dallas acted on leads that pointed toward two of the company's seven East Texas plants. Undercover agents posing as illegal immigrants infiltrated an alleged network of job-seekers who paid hundreds of dollars for fraudulent identification while those responsible for hiring them looked the other way. By the time the investigation wrapped up in December, agents had arrested 24 people, including: - A Pilgrim's Pride...

The employees at Anel's Hair Salon, a shop that caters to many Hispanics, hoped what they were hearing were rumors. But they now know their friends and clients are facing a very real change. Hair stylist Antonia Garcia said, " They said they were receiving notices they were getting called to the office and even told they had 8 days, a week to find another job or to prove their citizenship. Hilaria Rosales, a legal secretary for an immigration attorney is seeing an increase of clients concerned about their future. " What we've provided is a letter stating we're handling...

Just in time for the second round of debate, Georgia Employers for Immigration Reform on Tuesday launched a first round of radio ads in defense of the immigration reform deal in Washington. We heard it on, of all places, the Neal Boortz program on WSB.