Immigration agents raid Pilgrim's Pride plants

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By ANABELLE GARAY, Associated Press Writer via TBO.com

MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas (AP) -- Federal immigration agents raided Pilgrim's Pride poultry plants in five states Wednesday in a crackdown on an alleged scam to provide fake identification for illegal immigrant workers, authorities said.

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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, told the Houston Chronicle 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 local businessman and 10 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.


Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents remove evidence from a restaurant in Cheektowaga, N.Y., Wednesday April 16, 2008.

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