[Marxism] UFCW files suit against ICE raids

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

AP Texas News           

Sept. 11, 2007, 8:46PM
Union to file suit against ICE, seeking to stop immigration raids

By OSKAR GARCIA Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. — The United Food and Commercial Workers International  
Union wants a federal judge to stop immigration officials from  
conducting what the union calls illegal workplace raids.

A lawsuit to be filed Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court in  
Amarillo, Texas, alleges that agents unlawfully detained workers and  
violated their constitutional rights during raids of six Swift & Co.  
meatpacking plants in December. The lawsuit also demands that the  
Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs  
Enforcement pay damages to workers.

A copy of the lawsuit was provided to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

ICE officials investigating identity theft arrested 1,297 workers at  
the plants, but union officials have said more than 12,000 workers  
were detained against their will during the operation. The plants  
raided were in Cactus, Texas; Grand Island, Neb.; Greeley, Colo.;  
Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.

Union president Joseph Hansen planned to formally announce the  
lawsuit at a news conference Wednesday in Washington, and to complain  
that workers who weren't accused of breaking any laws were handcuffed  
and held for hours and denied access to phones, bathrooms, legal  
counsel and their families.

"What happened to the Swift workers and the workers in other plants  
is absolutely an outrage to me. If we don't stand up for workers when  
this happens, who the hell will?" Hansen said Tuesday. "I just think  
that this is not only a union obligation, it's absolutely the right  
thing to do."

According to ICE, 274 of the people arrested during the raids were  
charged with identity theft or other crimes unrelated to violating  
immigration laws. Virtually all 274 of those workers were convicted,  
ICE spokesman Tim Counts said Tuesday.

Of those arrested for being in the country illegally, 649 had been  
removed from the United States as of March 1, according to the most  
recent numbers available. Those arrested were from Chile, El  
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Peru.

ICE returned to the plants in July and made 20 more arrests,  
including a human resources worker and a union representative on  
charges of recruiting and harboring illegal immigrants.

Eight workers and the union are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit,  
but union officials expect at least three times that many to testify  
against federal agents. In addition to stopping the raids, the  
lawsuit seeks incidental damages for workers who say their rights  
were violated, citing the Immigration and Nationality Act and the  
First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

One of the workers at the Greeley plant, Sergio Rodriguez, said he  
was taken from the plant and detained for about 12 hours at a Denver  
detention center before federal officials found out he was a legal  
permanent resident. Greeley is about 60 miles north of Denver.

Rodriguez, 46, said he unsuccessfully asked officials six times to  
use the telephone. He also said he was handcuffed tightly using  
temporary plastic handcuffs that left marks on his wrists for more  
than two weeks after his arrest.

"They did a sloppy job, that's the way I see it," said Rodriguez, who  
said he immigrated to the United States illegally in 1979 but became  
a legal permanent resident in 1982.

"How are you supposed to eat the meals that they give us when you're  
all tied up?" he said. "You can't even move."

The lawsuit names Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and  
Assistant Secretary Julie Myers, both agencies and anonymous federal  
agents who conducted the Swift raids as defendants.

A Department of Homeland Security official referred questions to ICE.  
Counts said ICE attorneys had not yet seen the lawsuit, but planned  
to fight it vigorously.

"From what we've heard from the complaints, they are baseless,"  
Counts said.

Counts said all the workers were given full access to due process  
under the law and none had his or her rights violated. He said civil  
search warrants gave the agency the right to fully search the plants  
and question everyone there.

Counts said workers were allowed to use their own cell phones,  
company phones and even the phones of federal agents during the  
operation. He also said that at some of the plants, attorneys tried  
to get into the plant to talk to workers while the operation was  
happening.

"We do not allow client shopping by attorneys during a law  
enforcement action," Counts said. "No law enforcement agency would."

Workers and union representatives from the plants have complained  
about how ICE handled the raids since they happened in December. But  
the idea for a lawsuit from the union surfaced publicly last month,  
when Hansen and other top union officials met with workers and others  
in Omaha to hear complaints and discuss their options.

Hansen said Tuesday that the Swift raids left workers across the  
industry looking over their shoulders, worried about having to go  
through a similar experience.

"They're all saying, 'Jesus, when's it going to happen to us?'"  
Hansen said. "What happened in Swift spread through the packing  
industry and the poultry industry overnight without any help. Workers  
talk to each other."

The Food and Commercial Workers union represents 1.3 million workers  
in the United States, including 250,000 workers in packing and food  
processing.

Brazilian firm JBS S.A. acquired Swift from a private equity firm for  
about $1.5 billion in July. The purchase made the company the world's  
largest beef processor.

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