Union To File Suit Against ICE, Seeking To Stop Immigration Raids

OMAHA — The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union wants a federal judge to stop immigration officials from conducting what the union calls illegal workplace raids.

12 September 2007

2 minute read

North America

Union To File Suit Against ICE, Seeking To Stop Immigration Raids OMAHA, Neb. — The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union wants a federal judge to stop immigration officials from conducting what the union calls illegal workplace raids.

A lawsuit to be filed Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas, alleges that agents unlawfully detained workers and violated their constitutional rights during raids of six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in December. The lawsuit also demands that the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pay damages to workers.

A copy of the lawsuit was provided to The Associated Press on Tuesday.

ICE officials investigating identity theft arrested 1,297 workers at the plants, but union officials have said more than 12,000 workers were detained against their will during the operation. The plants raided were in Cactus, Texas; Grand Island, Neb.; Greeley, Colo.; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.

Union president Joseph Hansen planned to formally announce the lawsuit at a news conference Wednesday in Washington, and to complain that workers who weren't accused of breaking any laws were handcuffed and held for hours and denied access to phones, bathrooms, legal counsel and their families.

Source: Chron.com