Senators question immigration raids against meat packer

[WifeOHunkyJohn 2]

Senators question immigration raids against meat packer

By JENNIFER TALHELM, The Associated Press

Jan 22, 2007 7:54 PM (20 hrs ago)

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is taking heat for harm caused to a Colorado-based company during last month's largest-ever immigration raid, which netted almost 1,300 arrests of workers in six states.

Immigration officials on Dec. 12 arrested 1,297 workers, most on immigration charges, at Greeley, Colo.-based Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Utah.

After a closed-door meeting Monday with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff arranged by Colorado Republican Sen. Wayne Allard, senators from the affected states said the raid exposed flaws in the federal government and in a program designed to help employers screen for illegal immigrants.

Among the concerns, senators reported, were that agencies can't share information about stolen identities and that programs designed to catch illegal immigrants allow many lawbreakers to slip through the cracks.

"I can't think of a system that would be better designed to fail," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said, adding that part of the problem is a lack of political will to fix the system.

Chertoff acknowledged some of the problems, and said his department's programs are not "the perfect cure." Senators said they wanted Chertoff to enforce the laws, but they needed to assure companies that working with the government would not ultimately hurt them.

Swift participated in a program called Basic Pilot, which screens employees for invalid Social Security numbers. The system doesn't snag stolen Social Security numbers or numbers that are being used in multiple locations.

Although the government took no action against Swift in the Dec. 12 raids, the meat processor was forced to temporarily halt operations. The raids could cost the company an estimated $30 million.

"We want employers to use Basic Pilot," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. "But we need to have a clear understanding with the business community. I think it's very unclear now."

The senators put some of the blame on themselves and said they planned to introduce legislation to fix some of the problems.

For example, they hope to change the law to allow the Social Security Administration to tell the Homeland Security Department when a Social Security number is being used more than once.

Since the arrests, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has announced the indictments of 148 illegal immigrants who used other peoples' Social Security numbers and other personal information to get jobs at Swift. Local prosecutors are bringing state charges against some of the immigrants, including 80 in Cache County, Utah, and 18 in Weld County, Colo.

[Ban Hammer 14,422]

For example, they hope to change the law to allow the Social Security Administration to tell the Homeland Security Department when a Social Security number is being used more than once.

about freaking time they get their head out of rectal defilade and fix this.

[almaty 19]

i agree....it is just wrong that the system has so many holes in it

[peejay 327]

For those with anmesia...after the shameful 1986 illegal alien amnesty the old INS tried to enforce the law, but corporate America got the Senators and Congressmen in their districts to call off the dogs. Same as when the regulators tried to crack down on the crooked sh!t happening in the Savings and Loan industry (that eventually cost the US taxpayer $1/2 trillion).

Corporate America and their cronies in Congress lied to the American public in 1986 by promising future enforcement of the law in exchange for amnesty for illegal aliens that ended up being defacto amnesty for the crooks employing them. This is just what we get for believing these a$$holes.

These sham raids are just a spit in the ocean and nothing more than the crooks trying to sell the American people on another future amnesty that will not result in any reforms. Less than six months of raids out of 20+ years is a sad joke.

How about fixing the loopholes, putting enforcement infrastructure in place, and actually enforcing the law for quite a while before handing out lame mass amnesties to illegal aliens and the crooks that employ them (at taxpayer subsidy)?

"Comprehensive Immigration Reform" is just a wet dream of corporate America, Mexico/Latin America, and the ethnic lobbies. The American people should not be fooled nor forget the lies of 1986 / 1996. Look at history and judge for yourself.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I ain't buying this #######. These are corporate dollars talking. They can't figure out that they're employing illegals my #######. If that was so, then why are illegals concentrated in certain companies within certain industries and not others? If their empoyability was not verifiable then I'd argue that you'd find them anywhere. Only you don't.

Case in point: Nani actually took a job with a temp agency after she received her EAD and SSN that did not ever ask her for any documentation as would be required for the I-9. Needless to say, the place where she ended up working was overcrowded with Hispanics that were treated like fcuking slaves in this CD packaging plant. Ain't nobody telling me that the origin as well as the lousy treatment of these workers and the lack of I-9 verification by the temp agency that supplied them was a coincindence.

Also needless to say that Nani did not return to that place on day 2. I wouldn't have her caught up in a fcuking raid.