US immigration agents arrest 1,282 in raids at six meatpacking plants

The mass raids by ICE, a section of the Department of Homeland Security, represent the largest-ever workplace crackdown aimed at undocumented immigrants. The morning raids and subsequent arrests were carried out in Greeley, Colorado (261 arrests); Hyrum, Utah (145 arrests); Worthington, Minnesota (230 arrests); Marshalltown, Iowa (90 arrests); Grand Island, Nebraska (261 arrests); and Cactus, Texas (295 arrests).

The arrested meatpacking workers are immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Laos, Sudan, Ethiopia and other countries. Of the 1,282 arrests, 1,217 were on immigration charges and 65 on criminal charges, including identity theft.

The sweep—being called “Operation Wagon Train”—was carefully planned and orchestrated for maximum publicity in an effort by Homeland Security authorities to bolster the Bush administration’s anti-immigrant chauvinist credentials. It followed a 10-month investigation by the ICE into immigrants suspected of buying or stealing other people’s identities to secure work, described by one ICE spokesperson as “a massive identity-theft scheme.”

At the facility in Greeley, Colorado, headquarters of Swift, ICE agents surrounded the perimeter of the beef-packing plant before 7 a.m. They entered the plant around 7:30 a.m., as workers were beginning their morning break. Worker Cynthia Chaparro told the Greeley Tribune that workers tried to run, but were captured and held down on the floor of the cafeteria by agents.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/raid-d14.shtml