Dec 19, 2006 12:39 am US/Mountain
Union Claims Legal Citizens Caught In Swift Raid
by Rick Sallinger
GREELEY, Colo. (CBS4) ―
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About 1,000 ICE officials raided Swift & Co. plants in six states.
CBS
Union leaders and
immigration attorneys say citizens and legal residents were caught up in last week's raid at
Swift & Co. in Greeley.
In Colorado, there were 261 arrested in the sweeps but the union says some of those taken into custody may have actually been citizens.
"They went into the plant, they stood on the cafeteria tables, they said every U.S. citizen get on this side of the room, non U.S. citizens get on the other side," said Ernie Duran, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Denver Local. "If you looked like me and were a U.S. citizen they questioned you."
He said one citizen who couldn't immediately produce papers was questioned for 8 hours and other legal residents were put in custody.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials could neither confirm nor discredit the information but did acknowledge that a number of those arrested were transported out of the area.
The union demanded in court that they be returned to the district in which they were being prosecuted.
"We wanted to talk to them before they were interrogated by the federal government and we wanted to know their whereabouts," Duran said.
While two busloads took voluntary deportation to Mexico, many being held within the U.S. have returned.
Bond hearings will be held in immigration court on Tuesday.
Late Monday afternoon, the union filed a court brief seeking to know the whereabouts of its members.
The union called the raids an "outrageous abuse of police power" and added the criminal investigation into identity theft by illegal immigrants was "a Trojan horse" to conduct an immigration raid.
The government is due to file its brief on the case shortly.
A group of former Swift employees in Dallas is suing the company claiming it hired illegal immigrants to keep its wages low. The company said the suit is without merit.
(© MMVI CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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