Union report calls for enforcement changes

A report recently issued by the United Food and Commercial Workers International union has some very harsh things to say about the raids conducted in December 2006 by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Greeley and five other locations across the country.

As the self-proclaimed “National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of the 4th Amendment,” the union issued a scathing report called “Raids on Workers, Destroying Our Rights” that claims to be a “comprehensive analysis and investigation of ICE raids and their ramifications.”

The union enlisted a group of labor leaders, academic researchers, legal experts and former elected officials – including former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack who now serves as U.S. secretary of agriculture – to look into the allegations made about ICE conduct in the performance of those raids and subsequent raids in other workplaces.

The report concludes that large numbers of assault rifle-carrying ICE agents conducted the raids in a heavy-handed, military attack-style that unnecessarily frightened illegal and legal workers and trampled on their Constitutional rights, including the Fourth Amendment that protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Workers at the plants testified at five commission hearings that they were treated like criminals by ICE agents and denied food, water and the use of the bathroom for hours. They said they were also denied any contact with the outside world while the plants were shut down and they were questioned by ICE agents. That resulted in family members not knowing what was happening to workers and workers’ children left unattended.

Legal workers also wondered why suspected illegal employees could not have been arrested individually without traumatizing those who had done nothing wrong.

The union had a strong interest in the Swift raids because it represented workers at five of the six plants and now represents all six. Swift sold its interest in the plants seven months later to JBS S.A., a Brazilian company that is the largest beef processor in the world.

Swift officials claimed at the time that the company was using E-Verify, a federal identity program that aims to ensure illegal immigrants are not hired. JBS is using the same system today.

The raids, dubbed Operation Wagon Train by ICE, were targeted at illegal workers who had obtained their employment through identity theft. They came at a time when the Bush administration was responding to a growing national outcry over illegal immigration from Mexico.

Out of about 12,000 workers seized for questioning by ICE on Dec. 12, 2006, about 1,300 were subsequently arrested. Of those, only 274 were charged with crimes including identity theft. The rest were charged with immigration status violations – in other words, people who were in the country legally but who had violated some aspect of their permission to work.

ICE, in response to the report’s criticism, issued a terse four-sentence statement: “The men and women of ICE have a sworn duty to uphold the nation’s immigration and customs laws. We do so professionally and humanely, and with an acute awareness of the impact that enforcement has on the individuals we encounter. Anyone encountered who is in violation of those laws has full access to due process under the law. Anyone who believes an ICE employee has violated policy or law is encouraged to report the matter to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General.”

But the ICE may be thawing a bit. Under its new head, former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano, the agency appears to be moving away from an illegal worker enforcement focus to targeting employers who knowingly hire illegals.

In an April 30 statement on Worksite Enforcement Strategy, DHS said it will “focus its resources in the worksite enforcement program on the criminal prosecution of employers who knowingly hire illegal workers in order to target the root cause of illegal immigration.”

In its report, the union-formed commission said it is hopeful that the Obama administration will chart a new course in illegal immigration enforcement and is asking Congress to create a new ombudsman office for ICE to investigate abuse and punish those responsible.

Sounds like a good start.

Steve Porter covers agribusiness for the Northern Colorado Business Report. He can be reached at 970-221-5400, ext. 225, or at sporter@ncbr.com.

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