Vol. 71/No. 17      April 30, 2007

Nearly 1,300 workers at six Swift plants in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, and Utah were rounded up and thrown in jail. Of these, half have been deported, and 274 workers—including Núñez—are charged with criminal violations related to “identity theft.”

A grand jury indictment charged her on four counts of using a false name and fraudulent documents—charges punishable as felonies.

In my experience I have found that grand juries are often rubber stamps for prosecutors, and are always rigged against working people.

A jury of 13 was selected out of a pool of 31. She did not have a jury of her peers. The jury was entirely white, mostly professionals and older people, and not a single worker.

Núñez had not seen her three children since her arrest, according to her lawyers, Michael Mayer and Michael Said. U.S. marshals brought her into court in handcuffs, removed only during proceedings. She was not allowed to be closer than eight feet from her family, and during recesses she was taken out of the courtroom.

The prosecutor laid out the government’s case against Núñez in a classic example of turning the victim into the criminal. Her “crime” was using documents with another person’s name to get a job and support her kids. Prosecution witnesses included several individuals from Swift management, including a payroll boss and a human resources translator, as well as the ICE cop who arrested Núñez in the plant cafeteria.

The defense attorneys argued that Núñez is a good, honest worker who only wanted to support her family.

During a recess, Said explained to me that even if Núñez had been found not guilty, according to current immigration laws she would be handed over to ICE agents, placed before an immigration judge, and in all likelihood deported.

The jury was out just a little over two hours. It found the meat packer guilty on all counts. The trial lasted two days, and there were only a few present in the courtroom who were supporters of Núñez.

Like other Swift workers arrested in the raids, Eloísa Núñez was determined to fight the charges, and she hoped she could do it through the courts.

The trial showed graphically that working people cannot get a fair trial in the courts of capitalism.

It’s no accident that the government targeted workers at Swift. Last May Day the workers at the Marshalltown plant forced the company to shut down. This happened all over the country as hundreds of thousands walked off the job to demand the legalization of all undocumented immigrants. The government is now working overtime to reverse the solidarity and self-confidence these workers gained.

There will be more trials against workers at Swift in the coming weeks. The labor movement needs to defend these workers and win broader support for them. Taking such a stance strengthens our ability as workers to unite in the face of increasing assaults by the bosses and their government.

All charges against these workers should be dropped. None should serve time in prison. None should face deportation.

We should demand that Núñez and Lorena Andrade Rodríguez, another Swift worker recently convicted, be released from prison now and their convictions reversed.
 
 
Related articles:
Workers in Minnesota protest immigration raid
Workers in Minnesota protest immigration raid
Miami: Protesters demand asylum for Haitian refugees
‘Don’t deport my mother!’ says youth in Houston visit  
 
 
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