Colorado & Denver News

Associated Press Writers Jennifer Talhelm in Washington, Paul Foy in Salt Lake City, Oskar Garcia in Omaha, Neb., and Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Texas, contributed to this report.
GREELEY, Colo. (AP) ― Federal agents raided meat processing plants in six states Tuesday and arrested an unknown number of suspected illegal immigrants in an identity theft investigation, temporarily suspending operations at all six plants.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the workers were being arrested on administrative immigration violations and, in some cases, criminal arrest warrants stemming from a nearly yearlong investigation.

ICE chief Julie L. Myers told reporters in Washington that agents had uncovered a scheme in which illegal immigrants and others had stolen or bought the identities and Social Security numbers of possibly hundreds of U.S. citizens and lawful residents to get jobs with Greeley-based meat processor Swift & Co.

Six Swift processing facilities were raided Tuesday, in Greeley; Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn., representing all of Swift's domestic beef processing capacity and 77 percent of its pork processing capacity.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union said in a statement it planned to ask a judge to halt the raids, but there was no immediate word on when or where the request would be filed.

No charges had been filed against the company.

"Swift has never condoned the employment of unauthorized workers, nor have we ever knowingly hired such individuals," Swift & Co. President and CEO Sam Rovit said in a statement.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., an outspoken advocate of stricter immigration laws, said Swift officials should be prosecuted if they were involved in hiring any illegal immigrants.

"My hope at this point is that the U.S. government has the courage to prosecute the Swift & Co. executives who may have been complicit in their hiring," Tancredo said in a statement.

Since 1997, Swift has been using a government pilot program to confirms whether Social Security numbers are valid. Company officials have previously said one shortcoming may be questions about the program's ability to detect when two people are using the same number.

Hundreds of workers' family members gathered outside the plants, with some trying to deliver documentation to relatives inside. In Greeley, cars lined the street leading to the plant, and a handful of protesters jeered at city police officers directing traffic.

One sheriff's deputy described the scene outside the Utah plant as a circus.

"They've got three buses, a bunch of transport vans, a lot of cars and 150 or so agents," chief Cache County deputy David Bennett said.

Bennett said ICE officials didn't notify the sheriff's department about the raid. "They didn't ask for our help," he said. "We were lucky to find out."

Moore County (Texas) Sheriff Bo DeArmond said he, too, got no advance warning of the raid in Cactus.

Armond said Cactus, though relatively small and remote, is not immune from identity theft.

"It's everywhere," he said. "The only way they can get a job is by getting a Social Security number, ID, all that other stuff. They'll do whatever they can to get a job."

At Grand Island, Police Chief Steve Lamken said he refused to let his officers take part in the raid.

"When this is all over, we're still here taking care of our community and if I have a significant part of my population that's fearful and won't call us then that's not good for our community," he said.

Swift & Co. describes itself as an $8 billion business and the world's second-largest meat processing company. The Hyrum plant can process up to 2,200 cattle a day, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Hyrum city Administrator Brent Jensen says that plant employs more than 1,000 people.

In Washington, Myers said ICE had uncovered several different rings that may have provided illegal documents to the workers. Some immigrants had genuine U.S. birth certificates, Myers said.

ICE officials at the plants in Greeley and Worthington said the total number of arrests might not be released until Wednesday.

Additional Resources

• In 2006, Colorado was ranked as the fifth worst state when it comes to identity theft. For a list of resources if you think you think you might be a victim, check out the CBS4 story What To Do If You're An Identity Theft Victim.
  

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)