Big ICE Immigration Raid Snares Some Legal Workers In The Net

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/4868

Big ICE Immigration Raid Snares Some Legal Workers In The Net

A sweep of meat packing plants to arrest undocumented workers may have resulted in the accidental arrest of legal workers. Jesse Russell reports:

A massive sweep at plants in six states resulted in the arrest of undocumented workers, shut down the world's second largest meat processing company for most of the day and may have netted a number legal workers. The United Food and Commercial Workers spent much of Wednesday trying to help families of documented workers locate missing family members. Nearly 1,000 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered the plants owned by Swift and Company carrying machine guns, separating citizens from noncitizens, taking away green cards, and putting them on buses. The enforcers were sent to arrest as many as 170 identified suspects of alleged identity fraud. ICE chief Julie L. Myers told reporters Wednesday morning that the identities and Social Security numbers of hundreds of legal citizens had been stolen and used to obtain jobs with Swift and Company. She said an unknown number of immigrants were arrested on Tuesday, the UFCW said the numbers could be as high as 5,000.

AUDIO story here: http://www.laborradio.org/files/lo/winsheadlines.ram