Poultry Plant Raided, No-Match Letters Halted...

Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 10, No. 21 - September 2, 2007

1. Ohio Poultry Plant Raided
2. Judge Halts New "No-Match" Letters
3. Lawsuit Settled Over Kids' Detention

Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News
Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity
Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499;
fax 212-674-9139; wnu [at] igc.org. INB is also distributed free via
email; contact nicajg [at] panix.com for info. You may reprint or
distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people
how to subscribe.

*1. OHIO POULTRY PLANT RAIDED

At around 10am on Aug. 28, more than 300 federal and local officials
swarmed the Koch Foods poultry processing plant in Fairfield, Ohio in a
raid led by special agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE). ICE agents executed criminal search warrants at the site; they had
identified 180 Koch employees at the Fairfield plant they wanted to
question. By 4pm, ICE had arrested 161 suspected undocumented immigrant
workers at the plant. ICE agents simultaneously executed criminal search
warrants at Koch's corporate office in Chicago. [Cincinnati Enquirer
8/29/07; WCPO.com 8/28/07; ICE News Release 8/28/07]

ICE agents apparently found 12 of the workers hiding in a freezer.
[WCPO.com 8/28/07] Brian Moskowitz, special agent in charge of ICE for
Ohio and Michigan, admitted that some workers tried to hide in a subzero
freezer; he said a few were treated for hypothermia, but no one was
seriously hurt. [Cincinnati Enquirer 8/29/07] A spokesperson at Mercy
Hospital in Fairfield said six people had been brought in with minor
injuries including frostbite, and that all but one had been treated and
released. [Reuters 8/29/07]

Twenty of the arrested workers face state charges of forgery and taking
the identity of another person, Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones
said on Aug. 29. Jones is an outspoken opponent of immigration who has
lobbied Washington to crack down on employers who hire unauthorized
workers. [Reuters 8/29/07] The workers facing criminal charges are from
Guatemala, Mexico and Peru. All 161 of the arrested workers were served
with notices to appear before an immigration judge for removal
proceedings. In addition to Guatemala, Mexico and Peru, the countries of
origin of the 161 arrested workers include Dominican Republic, Honduras,
Lithuania, Ghana and Senegal. Eighty of the workers who are not facing
state charges remain in ICE custody at the Butler County Jail; the other
61 were released on alternatives to detention for humanitarian purposes
such as medical issues and sole care-giver situations. [Cincinnati Post
8/30/07 from Hamilton JournalNews]

The ICE raid was coordinated with the Southern District of Ohio's US
Attorney's Office; the USDA Office of the Inspector General; Health and
Human Services Department of Immigration Health Services; the Ohio
Department of Public Safety; the Butler County Sheriff's Office; the
Butler County District Attorney's Office; and Butler County Children's
Services. [ICE News Release 8/28/07] Butler County Children's Services
officials were at the plant during the raid to make sure no children were
left without supervision because a parent or guardian was arrested.

The raid was part of a two-year investigation into the hiring practices at
Chicago-based Koch Foods Co. Immigration officials described Koch Foods as
an "egregious violator" of U.S. immigration laws, which means that the
company is suspected of knowingly hiring undocumented workers. Local and
federal authorities said they would pursue criminal charges against
company officials if they find evidence of fraud, falsification of
documents or other crimes. "We're going to look wherever the evidence
takes us," said ICE special agent Moskowitz.

Company officials in Chicago declined to comment. Monte Lobb, a
spokesperson for the Fairfield plant, said he has tried for several years
to weed out undocumented workers, but federal authorities have offered him
no help. "The government won't work with me," said Lobb. He said the raid
put such a dent in his work force of about 600 that the company could lose
as much as $100,000 in chicken because no one was there to package it.
Lobb said the company does its best to determine whether the workers it
hires are here legally. "I'm against illegals," he said. "I'm not going to
do anything to break the law, but people get false papers." Koch Foods has
processing and packaging centers in several states, including Georgia,
Illinois and Alabama.

Advocates for immigrants said the raid was an arbitrary and unfair action
that hurts immigrant families and does nothing to solve fundamental flaws
in US immigration law. About a dozen protesters briefly interrupted
federal officials at the start of an Aug. 28 news conference on the raid.
"These raids are an outrage," said Dan LaBotz, a member of the Coalition
for the Rights and Dignity of Immigrants. "These are working people. These
are family people, and they're paying taxes." [Cincinnati Enquirer
8/29/07]

*2. JUDGE HALTS NEW "NO-MATCH" LETTERS

On Aug. 31, Judge Maxine M. Chesney of the US District Court for the
Northern District of California in San Francisco issued a temporary
restraining order preventing the Social Security Administration (SSA) from
sending "no-match" letters to companies whose employees' names do not
match the Social Security numbers they used when they applied for their
jobs. The letters were scheduled to be sent on Sept. 4 to about 140,000
employers with at least 10 workers whose names and Social Security numbers
don't match. Chesney's order also prohibits the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) from implementing a new rule, set to go into effect Sept.
14, under which the affected companies would have to resolve any
discrepancies within 90 days or face sanctions, including fines.

A coalition of labor and immigrant rights groups, led by the National
Immigration Law Center (NILC), the AFL-CIO labor federation and the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), had filed the lawsuit on Aug. 29
against the SSA and DHS, arguing that the Social Security database is full
of errors and the new rule would lead to discrimination against documented
and US citizen workers and result in unfair firings. After a hearing on
Aug. 31, Chesney wrote in her ruling that the plaintiffs "raised serious
questions as to whether the new Department of Homeland Security rule is
inconsistent with statute."

"The balance of harms tips sharply in favor of a stay based on plaintiffs'
showing that they and their members would suffer irreparable harm if the
rule is implemented," Chesney wrote. A hearing before District Judge
Charles Breyer is scheduled for Oct. 1 to let DHS argue against a request
for a permanent injunction to bar implementation of the new policy.

"This is a critical and important first step," said Lucas Guttentag,
director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project said of Chesney's ruling.
"It means that workers will not be threatened as a result of an improper
rule or inaccurate notices that were about to be sent out." Marielena
Hincapie, director of programs at the National Immigration Law Center,
said she was hopeful the court would find at the October hearing that the
rule was not valid and that DHS had acted "beyond its legal authority."
[Los Angeles Times 9/1/07; Press Release from NILC, ACLU, AFL- CIO
8/31/07]

The complaint can be found at:
http://www.nilc.org/immsemplymnt/SSA_Related_Info/suit_complaint.pdf .
Chesney's order can be found at
http://www.nilc.org/immsemplymnt/SSA_Related_Info/Chesney_Order_TRO.pdf .

*3. LAWSUIT SETTLED OVER KIDS' DETENTION

On Aug. 27, the ACLU announced a settlement with ICE that improves
conditions for immigrant children and their families inside the T. Don
Hutto detention center in Taylor, Texas, a former medium security prison
managed for ICE by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America. The
case was to go to trial in Austin on Aug. 27. The settlement was approved
on Aug. 30 by Judge Sam Sparks of the US District Court for the Western
District of Texas in Austin. "Though we continue to believe that Hutto is
an inappropriate place to house children, conditions have drastically
improved in areas like education, recreation, medical care, and privacy,"
said Vanita Gupta, a staff attorney with the ACLU's Racial Justice
Program.

The settlement addresses 10 lawsuits filed in March 2007 against Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and six ICE officials on behalf of 26
immigrant children between the ages of 1 and 17 who were detained at Hutto
with their parents. [ACLU Press Release 8/27/07; Houston Chronicle
8/28/07; AP 8/30/07] Nearly all of them were awaiting determinations on
their asylum claims. As the lawsuits progressed, all 26 plaintiffs were
released. The final six children were released just days before the
settlement was finalized, and are now living in freedom with family
members while pursuing their asylum claims. They include Andrea Restrepo,
a 12-year-old girl from Colombia, who was held in a small cell at Hutto
for nearly a year with her mother and 9-year-old sister. "I feel much
better, I feel tranquil, I can do things now I couldn't do there," said
Restrepo. "I am trying to forget everything about Hutto. I feel free. It
was a nightmare." [ACLU Press Release 8/27/07]

Toronto-born 10-year-old Kevin Yourdkhani, another of the original 26
plaintiffs, was skeptical. "I trust nobody there," he said. "It's good
that they are fixing up the problems but they should just shut it down."
Yourdkhani was detained with his parents at Hutto earlier this year for 45
days before Canada agreed to accept them and reconsider the parents' case.
There are currently about 100 children being held at Hutto. [Toronto Star
8/29/07]

Conditions at Hutto have gradually improved as a result of the lawsuits.
Children are no longer required to wear prison uniforms and are allowed
much more time outdoors. Educational programming has expanded and guards
have been instructed not to discipline children by threatening to separate
them from their parents. "This agreement with ICE will make permanent
important changes that already have been made and will ensure additional
improvements in the future," said Gouri Bhat, an attorney with the ACLU's
National Prison Project.

Soon after the lawsuits were filed, ICE changed its policy and began using
the Hutto facility mainly to detain families caught crossing the border
who are to be quickly deported under the "expedited removal" program, and
began to issue bonds to allow the release of families who had passed
credible fear interviews and were waiting decisions on their asylum cases.
Under the settlement, if a family is held for 30 days, government
officials will have to consider releasing them on bond. If a family is
held longer than 60 days, government officials must explain why.

The settlement also requires ICE to allow children over the age of 12 to
move freely within Hutto; provide a full-time, on-site pediatrician;
eliminate the "head count" system that required families to stay in their
cells 12 hours a day; install privacy curtains around toilets; offer field
trip opportunities to children; supply more toys and age- and
language-appropriate books; and improve the nutritional value of food. ICE
must also allow regular legal orientation presentations by local
immigrants' rights organizations; allow family and friends to visit Hutto
detainees seven days a week; and allow children to keep paper and pens in
their rooms. ICE's continued compliance with such reforms will be subject
to independent monitoring by the judge assigned to mediate the case, US
Magistrate Judge Andrew W. Austin. [ACLU Press Release 8/27/07; Houston
Chronicle 8/28/07]

"We are thrilled at what we were able to accomplish through litigation and
mediation," said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director of the ACLU of Texas. "But
the fact remains that our government should not be locking up innocent
children--period. That is not what America is about. It is time for
Congress to intervene and end the policy of family detention." More
information about Hutto and the ACLU's litigation is available online at:
http://www.aclu.org/hutto . [ACLU Press Release 8/27/07]

In an Aug. 27 statement, ICE defended conditions at Hutto and said it
welcomed the judge's outside monitoring because it "will help improve
communication about the facility and end any misconceptions and
allegations falsely made about the Hutto facility." [Houston Chronicle
8/28/07]

----------------------------------------------------------------
END

Contributions toward Immigration News Briefs are gladly accepted:
they should be made payable and sent to Nicaragua Solidarity
Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012. (Tax-deductible
contributions of $50 or more may be made payable to the A.J.
Muste Memorial Institute and earmarked for "NSN".)

****************************************************************************
ORDER "The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers," a new book by
the editors of Immigration News Briefs and Weekly News Update on the
Americas, out now on Monthly Review Press. For details see:
publisher website: http://monthlyreview.org/politicsofimmigration.htm
book website: http://thepoliticsofimmigration.org
authors' blog: http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com
****************************************************************************