Federal agents today raided a large Shipley Do-Nuts facility on Houston's north side, where they have arrested 20 workers suspected of being illegal immigrants.
Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed a search warrant about 5 a.m. at the Shipley manufacturing process center in the 5200 block of North Main.
Harris County sheriff's deputies assisted in the raid, which took place after a caravan of about 50 federal and county vehicles drove to the center.
An ICE helicopter hovered over the site while sheriff's deputies guarded the perimeter and federal agents went inside.
Link to story: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5704822.html
There's gonna be a lot of pissed off city officers over this. :D
charlydevo
04-16-08, 08:43 PM
I think ICE management went a little overboard with the amount of agents and Sheriff's Department officers they sent in. But, for everybody who wants something done about the immigration problem, this is the way to do it. The border is a revolving door (for those that ever actually get deported). The only way to keep them out is to continue to build cases against employers who hire illegals until they don't bother to do it anymore. No jobs for illegals equals no illegals. (Or, they'll just get jobs with the Surenos instead.)
Here's the whole story:
Immigration agents raid Pilgrim's Pride
By ANABELLE GARAY, Associated Press Writer
DALLAS - 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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More than 100 people were expected to be charged in the raids at the nation's largest chicken producer, Julie Myers, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement assistant secretary, told The Associated Press.
"Identity theft is a horrible problem that can ruin a person's good name," Myers said.
The raids were part of a long-term investigation, officials said. Plants in Mount Pleasant, Texas, Batesville, Ark., Live Oak, Fla., Chattanooga, Tenn. and Moorefield, W.Va., were raided, authorities said.
Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim's Pride, said the company went to ICE agents with information about identity theft at the Arkansas plant. Atkinson said the company uses a federal database to check identity documents of new employees, but that wouldn't stop a person from using a real, but stolen ID.
Atkinson said no criminal or civil charges have been filed against the company, which has about 55,000 employees and operates dozens of facilities mostly across the South and in Mexico and Puerto Rico.
"We knew in advance and cooperated fully," Atkinson said.
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, told the Houston Chronicle some of the people arrested lived at the Shipley Do-Nuts dough factory.
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, Jorge Delarco of Depew, is charged with conspiring to harbor illegal aliens. He was due in court Wednesday afternoon and it was not immediately known if he had a lawyer.
___
Associated Press Writers Jon Gambrell in Little Rock, Ark., and Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, N.Y. contributed to this report.
I think ICE management went a little overboard with the amount of agents and Sheriff's Department officers they sent in. But, for everybody who wants something done about the immigration problem, this is the way to do it. The border is a revolving door (for those that ever actually get deported). The only way to keep them out is to continue to build cases against employers who hire illegals until they don't bother to do it anymore. No jobs for illegals equals no illegals. (Or, they'll just get jobs with the Surenos instead.)
.
It may seem excessive to you but when you work the Border full time you start to realize that guarding the Donuts is the MOST important job and you can never have enough Officers for that! :p
Seems like it would save a bunch of trouble if they just cracked down on the companies who hire illegals.
There's got to be some kind of database they can create where you enter basic information to determine if someone is eligible for employment in the United States.
I read an article that was saying BP increased their patrols this year which has significantly reduced the number of people crossing... I was thinking "great, about time" then the next paragraph went on to complain about how the companies were complaining about it because there workers weren't showing up to work??? WTF? So, just look the other way because we need our workers here... I'm confused and I work the Border!
Seems like it would save a bunch of trouble if they just cracked down on the companies who hire illegals.
There's got to be some kind of database they can create where you enter basic information to determine if someone is eligible for employment in the United States.
There isn't but BOY would that make sense or what!!?
I talked to ATF once about databases. As a licensed firearm dealer I had to run backgrounds on people through the FBI before I could sell them a gun. this is great that they have it. If I buy a used gun from someone and I try to sell it later and it comes back stolen then I can be held responsible for possession of it but ATF has no database that would allow licensed dealers to run the serial number of a gun that we are purchasing to tell us if it is green=go or red=problem. It doesn't need to show all NCIC info etc, just clear or issue just like they do with the backgrounds, it doesn't say why or anything just proceed or not.
The government frequently doesn't make sense...
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