Colorado & Denver News

Associated Press writers Colleen Slevin and Catherine Tsai contributed to this report.
GREELEY, Colo. (AP) ― Business slowly began to return to normal in this town where 261 workers were caught up in a massive immigration sweep that temporarily halted operations at its largest employer, but some workers were still angry about being caught up in the raid.

"What they did doesn't have a name," Veronica Rodriguez, 27, a single-mother of four said as she left the Swift & Co. plant Wednesday. "We're not animals and there's no reason for us to be treated like criminals. It was bad."

Swift's meatpacking plants in Greeley and in five other states were running at reduced levels, one day after nearly 1,300 employees were arrested, the company said.

The blow to Swift's 20,000-person global work force came after the company cheered the resumption of U.S. beef exports to Japan after being blocked for 2 1/2 years.

Greeley-based Swift, which calls itself the world's second-largest fresh beef and pork processor, said operations had resumed at reduced levels on Tuesday at the plants in Greeley; Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.

In a written statement, Swift said all shifts were operating at all the plants on Wednesday but production was expected to be below normal in the short term.

The statement did not say how much production was lost Tuesday or how long it would be before it returned to normal.

Company officials did not return messages seeking comment.

At Taqueria Los Comales, several blocks from the plant, customers dined Wednesday evening where a day earlier the restaurant was closed after workers fled in fear.

"It'll affect us all in some way, we don't know exactly how badly," manager Antonio Rivas Lucero said in Spanish. "The most obvious is the loss of some of our regular customers."

Employees leaving work streamed out of the Greeley plant and through the tunnel that runs underneath the road outside. Cars lined up to leave the parking lot and some workers waited outside the gates for rides.

Meat cutter Miguel Torres, 23, who was waiting for a ride, said the production line was moving slowly.

"I feel sorry for the people that did it but they should have went by the rules," he said of the workers accused of using stolen identification documents.

Torres said the company didn't address Tuesday's raids but did offer employees a Thanksgiving-style dinner during lunch time.

Rodriguez, still upset about being held on the plant's kill floor by immigration agents Tuesday, rejected the offer and bought a bag of chips instead.

"I wonder what they're giving thanks for. It's not Thanksgiving," she said. "How would I be able to eat with what happened yesterday?"

During the raid, employees were taken to the plant's cafeteria where they were met with immigration agents, some standing on tops of the table, said Joann Lopez, a union representative at the plant.

She said the agents told U.S. citizens to stand on one side of the room. Lopez, a Greeley native, stood on the citizens' side but was questioned by agents about where she was born, she believes because she is Hispanic. After she told them North Colorado Medical Center, she said she was allowed to remain with the group.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Washington said a total of 1,282 people were arrested at the plants in what the agency described as a crackdown on an identity-theft scheme.

But ICE said 1,217 of the detainees were being held on immigration charges alone and only 65 were facing identity-theft or other criminal charges. Mexico's Foreign Relations Department in a statement said 600, or nearly half of those detained, are Mexicans.

The agency said more charges were possible as the investigation continues.

No charges were filed against Swift. President and CEO Sam Rovit has said the company has never knowingly hired illegal workers and does not condone the practice. However the company had estimated that up to 40 percent of its workers could be removed by the immigration raids, according to court documents from its effort to block the raids.

Like others in the domestic beef industry, Swift was hurt when Japan banned U.S. beef in December 2003 after mad cow disease was reported in a U.S. herd. The ban was eased this summer after U.S. and Japanese officials agreed to strict restrictions and checks at American meat processing plants.

However in November, Japan halted beef imports from the Greeley plant after a shipment arrived without proper documentation and faced a tour by Japanese officials.

With about 2,500 employees in town, Swift has the largest employee base in Greeley, Chamber of Commerce President Sarah MacQuiddy said.

The starting hourly wage is $11.75, topping out at $13.35, a union representative said. But with the unemployment rate running at 4 percent, it was unclear how difficult it would be to find enough workers to fill jobs of arrested employees who are unable to return.

An estimated 34 percent of Greeley's 83,000 residents are Hispanic, according U.S. Census estimates. The town, which is also home to the University of Northern Colorado, is about 50 miles north of Denver.

Union member Maribel Hidalgo said the union is prepared to help any families with food or child care but, so far, have not received any requests. She speculated that many of the affected families are relying on relatives for help right now.

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.
  

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