ICE arrests more than 25 at Live Oak Chicken Farm
Pilgrim's Pride facility in Live Oak, Florida.April 16, 2008 – FSH has received reports of a raid at the Pilgrim’s Pride Poultry processing facility at 19740 US Highway 90 in Live Oak, Florida Wednesday morning. Reporters at the Suwannee Democrat News had received a tip that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials were at the facility with several buses and a helicopter but when they arrived to cover the story agents had already made the arrests and had moved on. ICE confirmed the arrests in a courtesy call to FSH. Those arrested face administrative charges of immigration violations, and will also face identity theft or document fraud charges, officials say.
The raid turned out to part of a larger nationwide sweep as Federal immigration agents raided Pilgrim's Pride poultry plants arresting nearly 300 in five states Wednesday in a crackdown on an alleged scam to provide fake identification for illegal immigrant workers. The raids were part of a long-term investigation, officials said. Plants in Mount Pleasant; Batesville, Ark.; Live Oak, Fla.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Moorefield, W.Va., were raided, authorities said. A spokesman for Pittsburg-based Pilgrim's Pride, said the company went to ICE agents with information about identity theft at the Arkansas plant.
The poultry raids were the largest of several immigration enforcement actions taken across the country Wednesday. Agents arrived before dawn at a Houston doughnut plant and arrested almost 30 workers suspected of being in the country illegally. Robert Rutt, the agent in charge of the Houston ICE office, said some of the people arrested lived at the Shipley Do-Nuts dough factory, a four-block plant that includes a dormitory for workers.
In Buffalo, N.Y., federal law enforcement officials announced the arrest of a Buffalo-area businessman and nine associates accused of employing illegal Mexican immigrants in seven restaurants in four states.
Authorities also arrested 45 illegal immigrants during the early morning raids in western New York, Bradford, Pa.; Mentor, Ohio; Wheeling and New Martinsville, W.Va., and Georgia. Authorities said the workers were forced to staff the Mexican restaurants for long hours with little pay to work off smuggling fees and rent. The restaurants' owner is charged with conspiring to harbor illegal aliens.
Source: FSH News, The Suwannee Democrat, AP News Wires
