10/9/08
GREENVILLE, S.C. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents executed a federal criminal search warrant yesterday at the Columbia Farms poultry processing plant as part of an ongoing, ten-month criminal investigation into its employment practices, which has already resulted in criminal charges against nine supervisors, four plant employees and one human resources manager. The announcement was made by ICE Special Agent in Charge for the Office of Investigations in Atlanta, Kenneth A. Smith, and W. Walter Wilkins, U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina.
ICE agents searched for evidence relating to the unauthorized employment of illegal aliens and other crimes. the enforcement action resulted in the administrative arrests of 331 illegal aliens (123 females, 208 males).
The U.S. Labor Department also is investigating child labor law violations at the Greenville plant. Although the use of juvenile workers in meat-processing work is prohibited under Federal and State laws, federal authorities found that six illegal-alien juveniles were working at the plant. Investigations after the Agriprocessors raid resulted in the company’s owner and four executives being charged with more than 9,300 child labor law violations.
More than 110 workers were hired using employment eligibility forms, known as I-9s, signed by a human resource employee who no longer worked at the plant.
A federal review of I-9 forms found that 777 of 825 workers had apparently submitted false documents to get their jobs.
Human resources employees in Greenville were directed not to examine actual IDs when hiring. Instead, a former employee says, they made black-and-white copies that concealed flaws in fake IDs.
Those arrested, represent the following countries: Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Hungary.
In June, arrest warrants were issued for nine supervisors at the plant, alleging that the men, all of Mexico, were illegally in the country, and were engaged in aggravated identity theft and the making of false statements to ICE authorities.
Federal authorities have already indicted one top company official. Elaine Crump, the Greenville plant’s human resources director, was arrested in July on 20 felony counts charging that she instructed employees to use fraudulent employment eligibility forms.