Largest US immigration raids in a decade net 680 arrests

[babylonsister]

Largest US immigration raids in a decade net 680 arrests
By ROGELIO SOLIS and JEFF AMY
an hour ago


MORTON, Miss. (AP) — U.S. immigration officials raided numerous Mississippi food processing plants Wednesday, arresting 680 mostly Latino workers in what marked the largest workplace sting in at least a decade.

The raids, planned months ago, happened just hours before President Donald Trump was scheduled to visit El Paso, Texas, the majority-Latino city where a man linked to an online screed about a “Hispanic invasion” was charged in a shooting that left 22 people dead in the border city.

Workers filled three buses — two for men and one for women — at a Koch Foods Inc. plant in tiny Morton, 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Jackson. They were taken to a military hangar to be processed for immigration violations. About 70 family, friends and residents waved goodbye and shouted, “Let them go! Let them go!” Later, two more buses arrived.

A tearful 13-year-old boy whose parents are from Guatemala waved goodbye to his mother, a Koch worker, as he stood beside his father. Some employees tried to flee on foot but were captured in the parking lot.

snip//

About 600 agents fanned out across the plants involving several companies, surrounding the perimeters to prevent workers from fleeing. They occurred in small towns near Jackson with a workforce made up largely of Latino immigrants, including Bay Springs, Carthage, Canton, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastapol.

more...

https://www.apnews.com/bbcef8ddae4e4303983c91880559cf23?fbclid=IwAR0xiKfhkBO8V7e3_Kj-OaClNNtLe70fgt8MEC0ErJsNmLc9SxgYkiEI7_k

[elleng]

1. at a Koch Foods Inc. plant in tiny Morton

[questionseverything]

2. the people that work in these food processing plants are doing work Americans do not want to do

they are certainly not criminals or rapists

to be raiding these plants today as the people of el paso bury there dead is (insert worst word you can think of) inhuman

[SoCalNative]

8. I'm not sure that's so true

regarding the jobs in food processing plants. Greedy owners were able to bust the unions and eliminated the good union jobs to bring in low wage workers with no experience, pay little to no benefits and provide little protection.

[questionseverything]

12. i am sure the low wages and no benefits figures into it but

it is also freezing in those plants

years ago after high school a friend of mine worked in a local bacon packing plant...she lasted 4 hours

my point remains the same these workers are not the bad guy criminals,rapists that trump hollars about

[Fullduplexxx]

10. You mean .... do not want to do for low wages and no benes

[Joe941]

25. I've done that type of work and have friends that work in similar...

The work is not beneath us. There is dignity in the job. So nope don't agree.

[Demovictory9]

3. Koch as in the Koch Brothers?

[nolabear]

7. No. Different Kochs.

[Roland99]

4. How many MAGAts will be lining up for those jobs now?

I’m betting ZERO

[Frustratedlady]

5. Koch Foods? Is that owned by those honest and patriotic Repukes? Those Kochs?

Golly Gee, those guys would hire illegals? Why didn't the Trump administration look the other way, as usual for Repuke-connected crimes? Maybe Barr can straighten this out.

[AncientGeezer]

11. Different enterprise.

[Lochloosa]

6. And where are the pictures of the people hiring them being frog marched out?

[NightWatcher]

14. Exactly, each worker may have committed single counts but the owners should get 680+ counts

Send them to the concentration camps along with these people just trying to work enough to feed their kids.

[ripcord]

17. As long as the employers submit the I-9 with the information the applicant gives them

There is almost no way to prosecute the employers, in fact asking too many questions will get them investigated for racial profiling of applicants.

[Lochloosa]

18. E-Verify. But I'm sure they don't want to use it

E-Verify is a United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website that allows businesses to determine the eligibility of their employees, both U.S. or foreign citizens, to work in the United States.[1]

E-Verify was originally established in 1996 as the Basic Pilot Program to prevent illegal immigrants and other people who have violated immigration laws from obtaining employment illegally in the United States. In August 2007, DHS started by requiring all federal contractors and vendors to use E-Verify. The Internet-based program is free and maintained by the United States government. Use of E-Verify at the state level varies; some states have mandated use of E-Verify or similar programs, while others have discouraged the program.[citation needed]

E-Verify compares information from an employee's Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 to data from U.S. government records. If the information matches, that employee is eligible to work in the United States. If there is a mismatch, E-Verify alerts the employer and the employee is allowed to work while he or she resolves the problem; they must contact the appropriate agency to resolve the mismatch within eight federal government work days from the referral date.[2] The program is operated by the DHS in partnership with the Social Security Administration. According to the DHS website, more than 600,000 employers used E-Verify as of 2016.[3]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Verify

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

21. E-Verify doesn't solve all problems

Example: I'm an H-1B worker with Company A. I join Company B, but my new employer hasn't filed a change of employer petition (so I can only work for Company A).

I do the I-9 at Company B and then Company B runs E-Verify. Guess what... I show up as 'employment authorized.' Moral of the story: E-Verify cannot check that you are indeed legally able to work for that specific employer.

[ripcord]

23. So all employers switch to E-Verify

What happens to the 11 million people who don't have the proper paperwork? They starve or self deport, is that what you really want? People want employers to be punished for hiring people without documentation but the day that happens you will see a drastic decrease in employment among immigrants, I don't think some people know what they really want.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

20. Hmmm.. not quite

FWIW, immigration compliance is my bread and butter of many years. There are many things employers can do within I-9 rules to ensure they are compliant. It's actually rather simple, but it takes training. Instead, most of the I-9 duties are generally delegated down to the lowest rung of HR or admin workers who often do not know how to be compliant with I-9s or review documents. There are a lot of fake documents that look legit except for a few details that are obvious if you are trained.

I can almost guarantee that this raid occurred because either there was a tip or there was an I-9 or payroll audit of some sort. One of the cases I investigated was a fake SSN factory of sorts. People exchanged the same or sequential SSN cards with each other. It was fairly easy to spot, but I am also trained.

[haele]

9. Laz used to work in a poultry processing plant in the '90's

Hard work; most white workers quit or were quickly promoted to shift management if they lasted more than 6 months.
A month before the big holidays, there'd be a couple surge weeks where they'd bring in "out of town temps" who didn't speak much English.
But as time went on, those temps started replacing long-time line workers. They still worked hard (as in, hauling and manhandling around 7 tons of frozen poultry peices from one station to another every 8 hour shift), but the plant wasn't Union. So if the managers thought you had too much seniority and might be justified in asking for a raise, or if something happened and you didn't stay on the line and continued working after getting patched up, you were told not to come back except to pick up your final paycheck in a few days.
Most Trump supporters wouldn't last working these types of jobs for more than a week -if they could pass the hiring process in the first place. Laz lasted 8 months before he was fired because the night shift manager knew Laz was going to be given his job and he'd be let go because of too many violations linked to night shift management.

This was in Alabama in the 1990's. I doubt it's any different in Mississippi.

Haele

[NightWatcher]

13. How long now until we hear that these plants can't produce the foods due to lack of employees?

[madinmaryland]

15. But none of the management or owners were arrested for hiring these people.

[Initech]

16. And our slide towards Nazi Germany continues!

[captain queeg]

19. I worked in a meat plant down in AZ back in the 70s

La migra showed up I didn’t know WTF, people were scattering, I thought someone had a gun, my first experience with that. They hauled off about half the work force but apparently there were more illegals camped out behind the cattle pins and they moved them in. It was hard work, I sure didn’t begrudge those guys for coming there and working. and of course it allowed the owners to keep the wages depressed.

[DFW]

22. Mean as it might seem

If he owners voted for Trump, I will shed no tears if some of these places that lost their workers now face serious difficulty in making their expenses. If they vote against their own interests AND those of the country, causing anguish to people for no other reason than the fact that hey enjoy doing so, then let them at least suffer some financial consequences. They will not come close to he anguish being suffered by the families now being broken up, but it's a start.

[pecosbob]

24. Why target small companies? Why not raid Tyson f*cking Foods

These fuckers advertise in Central America and Mexico encouraging workers to come and then hire them illegally.

[In It to Win It]

27. I read that this was a multibillion dollar company

[pecosbob]

28. I guess my rant is at what point when a pattern of violations has been repeatedly observed

do we consider the violations to be systemic and treated accordingly? People get deported...no one ever goes to jail for the illegal hires...sh*t never changes.

[Blue_true]

29. It is massive, the largest poultry processor in the country.

Highly connected politically also. It is an Arkansas based company, at one time the family guy running it was fairly close to Bill Clinton.

[AllaN01Bear]

26. meanwhile nobody has fined these employers .

[Blue_true]

30. Nobody will. They will eventually rehire workers, rinse and repeat.

Pulling the guts out of dead animals isn't for everyone. Yes, some Whites and Blacks will work in those places, but typically they try to get the better jobs as quickly as possible. Even here in the South where there are a ton of manual labor Whites, I typically see Hispanics doing the nastiest jobs.

[In It to Win It]

31. This just proves that the right just keeps selling this dream...

They successfully convinced their base that companies like this deserves tax cuts, the companies that would rather ship in people from other countries than hire "the base."

The right also successfully convinces these people that "illegal immigrant" steal their jobs and everybody else is lazy.

The base doesn't realize that this is the point that Bernie Sanders and a host of Democrats make everyday. The message doesn't get inside the bubble.