The Associated Press
August 23, 2007
Federal immigration agents raid Smithfield Foods plant in N.C.
Federal immigration agents conducted raids at a Smithfield Foods Inc. slaughterhouse and in neighborhoods in four surrounding counties on Wednesday, arresting between 20 to 30 people suspected of identity theft, authorities said.
Smithfield spokesman Dennis Pittman said company officials learned about the raid not long before federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived at about 4 a.m. to remove some workers from the world's largest hog processing plant.
"We were told that they would be coming in. We didn't know for sure how many folks they would be getting," Pittman said. "We couldn't even tell our staff."
In January, immigration agents arrested 21 plant employees. Smithfield also sent letters to between 500 and 600 employees whose Social Security numbers, names or other personal information couldn't be verified. The company also fired about 50 workers, saying they provided false information.
That let to a walkout in which about 1,000 workers, most of them Hispanic, left in protest. They were supported by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has tried to organize the plan for more than a decade.
Smithfield agreed to rehire the fired workers and letter recipients, who received a grace period to resolve discrepancies in their identity information. When that time expired, Smithfield officials said about 300 workers quietly left their jobs or quit showing up for work.
"Work site law enforcement and other ICE actions around identity and immigration issues are a symptom of a failed immigration system, and no substitute for comprehensive reform," the union said in a statement. "They represent a form of political theater that ends in real human tragedy - the devastation of communities, breakup of families and the defilement of fundamental American values."
About 5,000 employees slaughter up to 32,000 hogs a day at the plant, located about 80 miles south of Raleigh.
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