Criminal charges mount after immigration raids at Swift

GREELEY, Colo. (AP)--About 220 of the nearly 1,300 Swift & Co. employees detained during immigration raids in six states last month face identity theft or other criminal charges, immigration officials said Jan. 5.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had initially said 65 of the 1,282 employees rounded up on Dec. 12 faced criminal charges.

Immigration charges are considered administrative, rather than criminal.

The plants that were raided were in Greeley; Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn., representing all of Swift's domestic beef processing capacity and 77 percent of its pork processing capacity.

Fifteen of those arrested in Grand Island already have been indicted, mostly on charges related to the false IDs.

Interim U.S. Attorney Joe Stecher in Omaha, Neb., said his office expects more indictments soon.

"There's been 11 more that we have filed criminal complaints on, and their cases will be presented to the grand jury for indictment consideration later this month," he said Jan. 5.

Nine of them will likely face aggravated identity theft charges, he said, and eight probably will face charges of using false statements to secure employment. Three of the 11 also will face charges of Social Security fraud.

"They were all using false documents for employment purposes," Stecher said.

Neither Swift & Co. nor any current or former management officials face charges, Swift CEO Sam Rovit said Jan. 5.

ICE spokesman Tim Counts said the investigation was still under way.

Swift said Jan. 4 the raids, which halted operations at the plants for six to seven hours, could cost the company up to $30 million in its current fiscal year as it tries to replace lost workers.

While all six plants resumed operations the same day of the arrests, none are back to pre-raid production levels. Swift has not said when operations might be back to full speed or how much operations have been reduced.

Swift spokesman Sean McHugh said the company was not disclosing its production levels for competitive reasons.

Swift, with more than $9 billion in annual sales, describes itself as the world's second-largest processor of fresh beef and pork products.

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Date: 1/10/07

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