News
Email
Print
More than 300 are detained in immigration raid in S.C.
House of Raeford plant under scrutiny for several months
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: October 8, 2008
GREENVILLE, S.C.
Federal agents swept through a chicken-processing plant yesterday, detaining more than 300 suspected illegal immigrants, and sending panicked workers running and screaming through the hallways. Worried relatives collected outside, fearful that their loved ones would be deported.
During a shift change, police and agents ordered all workers at the House of Raeford's Columbia Farms to show identification, according to officials and witnesses. The business had been under scrutiny for months, and the raid comes on the heels of even larger roundups at plants across the country.
Workers began running down hallways crying and screaming, said Herbert Rooker, a third-shift janitor. He wore a blue band on his wrist, indicating that agents had determined that he is in the country legally. He had to duck into a bathroom to avoid what he called a stampede of people.
"I didn't know what they were running from. I had no reason to run," said Rooker, who remained at the plant for five hours after the raid because police still had his truck blocked.
Immigration officials kept the workers inside, spending most of the morning trying to figure out how many are in the country illegally, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald said.
The number could be substantial. A recent review found that immigration paperwork for more than 775 of 825 workers contained false information, McDonald said. Immigration agents scoured the plant for paperwork and other information for the investigation.
Hector Zapata said he was hauled in when he dropped his daughter off for work. Agents ignored his cries that he did not work there, he said. Seven hours later, his daughter, in the United States legally, emerged, joining others milling around trying to figure out where their loved ones were being taken.
House of Raeford processes chickens and turkeys in eight plants in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and Michigan. A sales manager at the Greenville plant referred questions to the company's headquarters in Rose Hill, N.C., where a woman answering the phone said that there was no immediate comment.
Federal prosecutors and immigration agents have been investigating the plant's hiring practices for several months. Eleven people, along with the plant's human-resources director, have been charged, most accused of falsifying documents. Seven have pleaded guilty, three are awaiting trial, and two have fled, McDonald said.
U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkins would not say whether other plants or executives were being investigated.
The Charlotte Observer first reported in February that plant workers were in the country illegally and that company managers knew it.
One worker backed up that account yesterday.
"Everyone knew most of the workers were illegal. It was no secret. We just came in and did our work and you kept to yourself," said Dorothy Anthony, who works with her sister Alice on the deboning line.
The women, both American citizens, were released after showing ID.
In August, more than 600 suspected illegal immigrants were detained at a Mississippi transformer plant in the largest single-workplace immigration raid in U.S. history. In May, federal immigration officials swept into Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, in Iowa. Nearly 400 workers were detained, and fraudulent permanent-resident alien cards were seized from the plant's human-resources department, according to court records.
Email
Print
