The JBS, ICE partnership is a good move

JBS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials took a positive step last week when they agreed to work to work together to ensure the meatpacking giant’s U.S. workforce stays legal. The move comes more than half a decade after a raid on the meatpacking plant in north Greeley netted 262 suspected illegal workers. The dramatic raid in December 2006 came as part of a nationwide operation that saw federal agents descend on six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants across the country with guns drawn. Authorities rounded up about 1,300 suspected illegal immigrants in largest immigration enforcement action in the nation’s …
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CAIRCO Research

The 2006 Swift Raids: Assessing the Impact of Immigration Enforcement Actions at Six Facilities

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization

On December 12, 2006, about 1,300 illegal immigrants working at six meat processing plants owned by Swift & Co. were arrested in the largest immigration enforcement action in U.S. history. Other illegal workers, fearful of future raids, stopped reporting to work. Additionally, in the months prior to the raids, new employee screening by Swift led to the loss of about 400 illegal workers. The plants are located in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, and Utah. This report examines the raids and their aftermath.

Among the report’s findings:

• As is the case in the entire industry, work at the six Swift plants is characterized by difficult and dangerous conditions.
• Like the rest of the industry, workers at these facilities have seen a steady decline in their standard of living. Government data show that the average wages of meatpackers in 2007 were 45 percent lower than in 1980, adjusted for inflation.

Read more, with graphs at: http://cis.org/2006SwiftRaids