Swift & Co. meat plants shut down following arrest of hundreds of illegals

December 12, 2006

Over 1,000 Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided six Swift & Co. meat plants in the Midwest and West on Tuesday, shutting them down following the arrest of hundreds of illegal aliens. The raids followed a 10-month federal investigation into identity theft by illegal immigrants, agents said. The company was not charged. In April, meat companies including Swift shut plants so workers could attend nationwide immigration rallies.

In a statement, ICE said that the investigation identified “a large identity theft scheme which victimized large numbers of U.S. citizens and lawful residents.”

Evidence uncovered during the investigation, which began in February 2006, indicated that large numbers of illegal aliens may have illegally assumed the identities of U.S. citizens or lawful U.S. residents and improperly used their Social Security numbers to gain employment at Swift facilities. ICE agents and the Federal Trade Commission have identified hundreds of potential victims. The stolen identities may involve "hundreds of individuals", agency officials said.

U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado, called for the prosecution of Swift executives who may have been complicit in the hiring of any illegal aliens.

"When something of this scale happens, it's pretty likely that the plant managers were aware of it, often with the consent of management,'' Tancredo, who has repeatedly called for tougher laws to stop illegal immigration, said in a statement.

Court-authorized searches were conducted at six facilities, in in Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Iowa, and Minnesota. Over 1,000 agents took part in the raids. The plants process all of Swift's U.S. beef processing and 77 percent of its U.S. pork. Workers were arrested for immigration violations and, in some cases, existing criminal arrest warrants.