March 10, 2008 

UFCW-Led National Commission to Hold Series of Hearings on ICE Raid Tactics  

Workplace Immigration Report. Volume 2:5.  Page 131.
ISSN 1940-1981

Workers' civil rights are being violated during Immigration and Customs Enforcement worksite raids, speakers charged at the first in a series of nationwide hearings by a commission created by the United Food and Commercial Workers union to examine ICE raid policies.

ICE has become a "cowboy agency" sweeping up U.S. citizens in workforce raids that violate worker rights, Mary Bauer, director of the immigrant justice project for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Feb. 25 during the commission's first meeting.

The group plans to hold numerous such meetings, patterned after congressional hearings, at cities around the country. The commission, dubbed the National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of Fourth Amendment Rights, will hold at least four additional hearings around the country through June. Although times and dates are still being finalized, hearings likely will be held in Boston, Des Moines, and at least two other cities, UFCW said.

In addition, the group plans to draft a report at the conclusion of the hearings and distribute it to the public, to Congress, and to other elected officials. Members of the commission include Joe Hansen, president of UFCW, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D), several professors, union leaders, and members of immigration rights organizations.

Meanwhile, contacted for comment regarding allegations raised during the first hearing, an ICE spokesman told BNA March 6 that the agency always conducts raids professionally and respects worker rights. ICE is willing to participate in upcoming hearings to provide accurate information, agency spokesman Richard Rocha said.

The commission was formed by UFCW after ICE raids at six Swift & Co. meat processing plants raised constitutional rights concerns, according to the union.

Civilian-driven commissions "have played an important role in U.S. history," UFCW said. Civil rights abuses against African Americans during the civil rights movement and Japanese Americans during World War II were both addressed by civilian commissions, the union said.

"Citizen review panels are often created to help renew a commitment to rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution," UFCW said.

At the first hearing, the commission heard testimony from two workers who were detained during the Swift raids, several immigrant rights groups, and an attorney working on UFCW's lawsuit challenging ICE's raid tactics.

2006 Swift & Co. Raids

On Dec. 12, 2006, ICE raided Swift plants in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, and Utah, detaining 1,282 individuals on immigration and criminal charges. Thousands of additional employees were held for hours during the raids, UFCW said.
According to UFCW president Hansen, during the Swift & Co. raids, "government agents stormed worksites, held thousands, shipping some to detention centers."

"This did not happen in another country; it did not happen in some distant era," Hansen told the hearing. "Nothing will stop ICE abuse unless we stand up and say work is not a crime" and demand that the federal government respect workers' rights, he said.

During testimony by U.S. citizens who were detained during the Swift raids, Pasqual Talamantes, who works for Swift in Grand Island, Neb., said that he was held for over six hours with no food or water.

The first agent who interviewed Talamantes did not believe he was a U.S. citizen because he was raised in Mexico and speaks Spanish, he said. "The agent was not listening to me," and did not properly check my Social Security number to identify me as a U.S. citizen, he said.

When a second officer checked Talamantes's Social Security number, it only took "a few minutes" to verify his status and release him, Talamantes said. "I was astounded that I had been held so long and it took the other agent only a few minutes to verify me," he said.

Speakers Suggest Problem Will Continue

ICE worksite raids have "grown in scope and frequency as immigration and criminal laws have been knit together to provide ICE with an arsenal of tools," Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the commission.
ICE derives authority for worksite raids from both immigration laws and a range of criminal laws, Butterfield said. ICE increasingly focuses on document fraud, identity theft, and filing criminal charges against employers that knowingly hire illegal aliens, a focus that makes it easier for ICE to engage in workplace raids, she said. The problems associated with these raids will increase as more raids are carried out, she added.

Overall, the United States has a "dysfunctional immigration system" in place, where people in the workplace have fewer rights if they are undocumented, Butterfield told the hearing. "We need to grant legal status to the 12 million undocumented workers," because until they have legal status they remain a "vulnerable population in the workplace," she said.

Monica Guizar, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, told the commission about a Feb. 7 raid at Micro Solutions Enterprises (MSE) in Van Nuys, Calif. (2 WIR 108, 2/25/08  ). During the raid, ICE agents took eight illegal aliens into custody on federal criminal charges, and determined that another 130 workers at the plant were in the United States illegally.

ICE was better prepared to deal with humanitarian concerns raised by the immigrants during the Micro Solutions raid than they had been during the Swift raids, Guizar said. Of the 130 illegal aliens, 46 were released on humanitarian grounds, such as medical conditions or being the sole caregiver of a child, ICE said.

However, these "sick or pregnant immigrants are forced to wear an ankle bracelet to monitor them," Guizar said. The bracelet must be charged each day by plugging it into an electrical outlet, which is an inconvenience, she said.

UFCW Lawsuit Pending

In September 2007, UFCW filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas calling for an injunction against what the union characterized as illegal worksite raids conducted by ICE agents. The lawsuit alleges that federal agencies and officials violated the constitutional and statutory rights of thousands of citizens and lawful U.S. residents by detaining them during the Swift raids (UFCW v. Chertoff, N.D. Tex., No. 2:07-cv-00188, complaint filed 9/12/07).
"From start to finish, the Swift raids were illegal and unconstitutional operations," Peter Schey, an attorney with the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law Foundation who is working with UFCW on the case, said at the hearing.

ICE is attempting to maximize the number of detentions and arrests from worksite enforcement actions by taking a few limited arrest warrants and using them to enter a plant and carry out mass detentions of workers, Schey said.

Currently, the government's motion to dismiss the UFCW case is pending before the court, but if "we get to the merits of the case, then the government will lose on the merits," Schey said.

ICE Defends Actions During Raids

Although ICE was aware of the hearings, a spokesman declined to comment directly on the allegations made before the UFCW-created commission. However, ICE said its policies are to always conduct raids professionally and to take humanitarian concerns into consideration.
"We are willing to attend future hearings of the commission, because we are willing to provide accurate information about ICE's actions to any group," Rocha said.

Rocha also said in every worksite enforcement raid ICE considers the humanitarian issues of both citizens and noncitizens. "ICE is unlike any other major law enforcement agency because we take humanitarian concerns into account," he said.

For example, ICE is "committed to ensuring that children are not left without caregivers," he said.

ICE Nov. 16 released a set of guidelines outlining "best practices" for agency personnel to follow for quick identification of persons arrested during worksite enforcement operations who are sole caregivers or have other humanitarian concerns (1 WIR 73, 11/19/07  ).

The guidelines were the product of discussions between Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.), and ICE. Kennedy and Delahunt began discussions with ICE about the guidelines following the arrest last March of 350 workers at a Michael Bianco leather factory in New Bedford, Mass. The raid raised issues as to the treatment of detainees with special humanitarian concerns.

According to Rocha, the guidelines were issued to publicize and clarify the practices that have long been in place for ICE agents. "The humanitarian guidelines were already in place at the time of the [Swift and Bianco] raids, and the agency has always taken these concerns into account," he said.