Remarks By
UFCW International President
Joseph T. Hansen
at the First
National Meeting on ICE Misconduct and
Violations of 4th Amendment Rights
August 16, 2007
On December 12, 2006, hundreds of heavily armed agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stormed six meat packing and processing plants. At gunpoint, more than 12,000 workers were herded together and systematically stripped of their rights.
Workers were denied access to telephones, bathrooms and legal counsel. Citizens and legal residents were denied the opportunity to retrieve documents to establish their legal status. Some were handcuffed and held for hours. Others were shipped out on buses.
Families, schools and day care centers could not be contacted to make arrangements for the children of detained workers. Families were left divided—not knowing where or when they might see a missing family member again.
Inquiries or protests to ICE officials were met with contempt or simply dismissed.
The justification for such a mass disruption of work, family and community, along with the bullying, the intimidation, the fear, and the threats directed at the workers, was a handful of warrants involving less than a fraction of one percent of the workers swept up in the raid.
The details of the excessive show of force—the abusive conduct, the disregard for individual rights and the lack of concern for working families, would make you think this incident occurred in a foreign country or in a distant era.
The ICE raids, unfortunately, happened in America's heartland in our times. It happened to America's workers—to our brothers and sisters. It happened to our fellow Americans, native born and immigrant.
I ask you, what if ICE raided your workplace or your office, your plant, your school, your hospital—wherever you work, whatever your job?
You could be rounded up, herded and placed in mass detention. Why? Because instead of doing the hard work of fixing our immigration system, our government seems intent on playing politics with immigration and in the process, trampling on our constitutional rights.
Showing up for work should not subject workers to being detained. Showing up for work should not subject workers to be held without being allowed to contact family. Showing up for work should not subject workers to be shipped off to a detention center in another state.
Work is not a crime. Workers are not criminals. We do not leave our constitutional rights at the plant gate.
The 1.3 million member United Food and Commercial Workers Union—the UFCW—is the union of the workers of the meat packing and food processing industry.
UFCW members go to work everyday. We do the hard and often dangerous work to put food on America's table. The UFCW will honor the legal requirement and our moral commitment to represent all workers in our union plants.
We will take action to make sure that the rights of all of our members are respected and protected in accordance with the law. Thousands of UFCW members have felt the impact of ICE misconduct. They have seen first hand the disregard of constitutional rights.
I believe it is our responsibility to bring together all Americans to stop ICE’s abuse and disregard of basic human rights for all workers, in all workplaces. Coming together today to form the “National Working Group on ICE Misconduct and the Violation of Fourth Amendment Rights” will advance our cause.
Together, we will alert the public and elected officials that our rights are under attack and, that we will rise united to defend those rights.
We will hear from the workers, the families, and community members who suffered through the ICE raids of Swift plants on December 12, 2006. Their testimony will give power and purpose to our efforts. Their courage will give strength to others to stand with us. This is our first step.
I want to hold similar hearings around the country to document and catalogue the experiences of workers in ICE raids. I want our findings to serve as a foundation for Congressional hearings and action to secure Fourth Amendment rights in the workplace.
Also, this afternoon, I will discuss with you plans for potential legal action to protect workers from future ICE misconduct.
We have an agenda for action. We have an agenda for change. Thank you for coming today to stand together for America’s workers.
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