[Peace-discuss] ICEd out in Illinois

[Brian Dolinar]

Immigration raids close to home.
Anybody have contacts in Beardstown?

BD
US Immigration officials arrest 62 at pork plant Wed Apr 4, 2007 1:47PM EDT

By Bob Burgdorfer

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Federal immigration agents arrested 62 sanitation
workers during a Wednesday morning raid at Cargill Inc.'s pork plant in
Beardstown, Illinois, some on identity theft charges and others for being
illegal immigrants, immigration officials said.

The arrests disrupted meat production at the plant for about three hours,
but no Cargill employees were arrested, immigration and company officials
said.

The raid was smaller in scope than one four months ago that temporarily shut
down six Swift & Co. meat plants and prompted calls from the meat industry
for changes in federal immigration laws to make it easier to hire immigrant
workers.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said those arrested on
Wednesday were sanitation workers employed by Chattanooga, Tennessee-based
Quality Service Integrity Inc., which was hired by Cargill.

"The investigation, which is ongoing, began in January. The ICE
investigation revealed that most of the QSI work force was composed of
illegal aliens," ICE said in statement released at a news conference.

QSI was cooperating with ICE officials, but had no other comment, said Bill
White, QSI's director of human resources.

Some of those arrested were soon released to care for their children or for
health reasons, ICE officials said.

"We cooperated with ICE by giving them access to wherever they needed to
go," Cargill spokesman Mark Klein said.

Cargill employs about 2,200 people at the plant, which can slaughter about
18,000 hogs a day, said Klein.

Immigration officials told a news conference in Chicago that 13 workers were
arrested on charges of identity theft, and another 49 on immigration
charges. Those arrested included the QSI manager at the plant and a QSI
personnel administrator.

Cargill Inc., a privately held agribusiness conglomerate based in Minnesota,
is the nation's second-largest beef producer and fourth-largest pork
producer, according to industry estimates.

Beardstown, located about 200 miles southwest of Chicago, is a small river
town of about 6,000 people, about a third of whom are Hispanics who were
attracted by work at the Cargill plant.

"We welcome immigrants any time, but there's a right way to do it and a
wrong way to do it. If people are illegal, we're not going to tolerate it,"
Mayor Bob Walters told Reuters by telephone.

Immigrants make up a large percentage of workers at U.S. meat plants.

In December, hundreds of employees were detained during the raids at Swift &
Co. plants in six states. The raids, which temporarily shut those plants,
were part of an investigation into identity theft involving illegal
immigrants.

The raids at Swift sparked calls from meat industry leaders for an overhaul
of U.S. immigration policies to make it easier for meat companies to hire
immigrants legally.

A large portion of meat industry workers are immigrants, mainly Hispanics,
because of difficulties filling positions that involve fast-paced and dirty
work.

(Additional reporting by Karl Plume and Christine Stebbins in Chicago)
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 Reuters journalists are subject to the Reuters Editorial Handbook which
requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.


-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com
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