Farm News
12-20-06
ICE raids push packers to improve practices
By Kristin Danley-Greiner, Farm News staff
If meatpackers scrutinize their workers more closely and take action regarding
their labor pool in light of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
recent crackdown called “Operation Wagon Train,” the livestock markets could
react negatively.
More than 1,200 people were arrested in meatpacking plants in six states,
including Iowa, during raids that federal officials said amounted to the largest
ever workplace clean-up on illegal immigration. U.S. Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that the investigation nabbed people
considered to be illegal immigrantsî who used the stolen identities of U.S.
citizens to obtain employment. A 10-month investigation led to the arrests and
officials believe hundreds of U.S. citizens were victims of identity theft from those
arrested.
The raids at Swift & Co. plants across the country resulted in 1,217 workers
being arrested on immigration charges and 65 on criminal charges such as
identity theft. The arrested workers were from countries like Mexico, Guatemala,
Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Laos, Sudan and Ethiopia. The company estimated
that the raid would remove up to 40 percent of its 13,000 workers.
“Hog slaughter is typically large through the fourth quarter, but declines after the
first of the year. Thus, as the plants raided replace workers and all plants run
overtime to process hogs, it shouldn’t have a big impact on prices,”î said John
Lawrence, an agriculture economist at Iowa State University (ISU).
“Obviously, packer margins have to increase enough to justify running overtime
and that will likely pressure hog prices some.
“While we have record number of cattle on feed for this time of year, cattle
slaughter is typically lower through the winter. As a result, plant likely have the
capacity to process the cattle. However, the cattle market has been weak and
this may be enough bad news to make things worse. But, the slowdown alone
shouldn’t have a big impact,î” Lawrence continued. “However, if ICE raids more
plants or if packers scrutinize their workers more closely, or if some workers
decide to move on for fear of a raid, the worker shortage could grow and weaken
the demand for cattle.î”
Swift company officials say they did not knowingly hire illegal workers. Swift and
other meatpackers use Basic Pilot, a federally run citizenship verification system
that checks the legal status of job applicants. However, meat industry officials
say the system doesn’t work properly, because it only verifies whether the Social
Security numbers provided by job applicants match the names provided, not
whether or not the number has been stolen or is being used by someone else.
“The meat packing industry has been an entry point for immigrants of
generations. Upton Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle’ was about immigrant workers in the
packing industry and was written 100 years ago. Swift and other packers
believed that they were complying with the law—no company would willingly
violate the law,”î Lawrence said. “One of the questions is how deep the
investigation and penalties will go; will the employers be fined? And how
widespread is the crackdown, does ICE raid other companies in beef, poultry and
pork? I have not heard anything about these.î”
Roger McEowen, agriculture law expert at ISU, said that history has revealed
that packing plants have a long history, going back into the 1800s, of shady
business practices.î
“I am not surprised by these events,”î McEowen said.
Quite a few immigrant advocates have spoken out about the process that was
undertaken and the way the immigrants were treated. Homeland Security agents
processed hundreds of detainees at Camp Dodge. More than 100 of those
processed had criminal charges filed in addition to being in the country illegally.
Some were shipped to other similar bases.
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin sided with ICE, saying that “it is appropriate to enforce our
immigration laws and to investigate fraudulent identification practices. The
individuals engaged in producing these documents appear to be engaged in
wide-scale fraud that puts law abiding citizens at risk. Enforcing our immigration
laws includes detaining people suspected of being in this country illegally.
However, the process used to detain individuals in the wake of raids at the Swift
Packing plant has been murky and lacking transparency. Days later it’s still
unclear how many people are in custody or who they are.î”
Harkin said that the raids bring to light the need for comprehensive reform to our
antiquated immigration system.î
“Only when we bring the 12 million illegal workers out of the shadows and into
the legal system will both industry and employers benefit. These improvements
must include increased security at our borders and a means to legal citizenship
for immigrants already in the country, which would include fines, learning English,
passing a background check and paying back taxes,î” Harkin said in a statement.
‘‘It is high time that Congress moves forward and passes a comprehensive
overhaul of our immigration system.”
The human interest angle of the raids has tugged at many people’s heartstrings.
A handful of single mothers had to leave children behind with strangers, including
a breastfed infant that refused to take a bottle. According to reports, young
children came home from school to empty houses, for example.
“The insecurity of not knowing where a parent is at is hardest for a child to go
through,Ӕ said Colleen Jolly, a family communications specialist with ISU
Extension. “Immigrant families are often here without their supporting extended
family, so to have various parts of the family in jeopardy makes the situation even
more difficult.Ӕ