Immigration agents arrest 20 at Batesville poultry plant

It was part of nationwide sting

The Associated Press

Federal agents arrested more than 20 people for identity theft during a pre-dawn raid Wednesday on a north Arkansas poultry plant, part of a nationwide sweep against suspected illegal immigrants at Pilgrim’s Pride operations in five states.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they made nearly 300 arrests at raids in Batesville; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Live Oak, Fla.; Mount Pleasant, Texas; and Moorefield, W.Va. In Batesville, the agents entered the plant at 6 a.m. to begin arresting those suspected of using other people’s Social Security numbers to get jobs there, said U.S. Attorney Jane Duke.

In a statement, agents said their investigation began January 2007, with first arrests coming Dec. 11, when agents arrested 24 people at a Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. plant in Mount Pleasant, Temple Black, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman who was present for Wednesday’s raid in Batesville, declined to offer any further details about the arrests.

Duke said indictments against those arrested likely would be made public Thursday.

“The investigation will continue based on this initial pickup,” Duke said. “Things may evolve out of that.”

Those arrested in Batesville will be held at the Pulaski County jail pending immigration screenings and court appearances, Black said. He did not offer names of those arrested.

Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim’s Pride, said the company went to agents with information about identity theft at the Batesville plant, which employs about 370 people. Atkinson said no criminal or civil charges have been filed against the company.

“We knew in advance and cooperated fully,” Atkinson said.

Black said he did not know if Pilgrim’s Pride cooperated with investigators and referred questions to Duke. She declined to offer specifics.

“I will say the company has fully cooperated with our investigation,” Duke said. “They have provided information as requested.”

Of those arrested, only eight were Mexican nationals, said Mexican consul Andres Chao. Chao said officials from the Little Rock consulate contacted them to offer legal assistance.

Chao said none of those arrested complained about mistreatment by ICE agents.

The poultry raids were the largest of several immigration enforcement actions across the country Wednesday. Agents also made unrelated arrests at a Houston doughnut plant and others in Georgia, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

At Pilgrim’s Pride, which also has plants in Arkansas at Clinton, De Queen and El Dorado, managers use a federal database to check identity documents of new employees. However, Atkinson said that wouldn’t stop a person from using a real, but stolen, ID or Social Security number.

But that is not a first at Pilgrim’s Pride, which has about 55,000 employees and operates dozens of facilities, mostly across the South and in Mexico and Puerto Rico. Police arrested a manager at its De Queen plant who rented identification documents for $800 to get a job there. Officers arrested him only after he fought with his wife last year and his fake identity unraveled.

Wednesday’s raid was the first for Immigration and Customs Enforcement on an Arkansas poultry plant since a July 27, 2005, raid on a Petit Jean Inc. poultry plant in Arkadelphia. That day, agents arrested 119 suspected illegal immigrants, who left behind about 30 children at schools and day cares.

Officials with the state Department of Human Services said they did not need to take any children into their care after the morning raid at Batesville. Ted Hall, superintendent of the Batesville School District, said only one child had a parent picked up in the arrests. The child ended up going home to the other parent, Hall said.

“I didn’t want a kid of ours to go home and nobody be there,” Hall said. “That was my concern.”