Vol. 71/No. 33      September 10, 2007

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) members and officials from five of the six Swift plants participated in the meeting. The nonunion Swift plant in Hyrum, Utah, was the only one not represented.

At the meeting, 15 packinghouse workers spoke about the December 12 raid. “We were treated like we were just a bunch of cattle being held for slaughter,” said Ana Arellanes from Cactus, Texas.

“I felt like I was discriminated against because of the color of my skin, as I was repeatedly asked for proof of my citizenship,” stated Orlando Núñez, a Chicano maintenance mechanic at the Grand Island, Nebraska, plant. “I think I got the easy part of it, compared to some who were held for many more hours than me, including some of the workers who were called liars.”

Missy Broekemeier from the Marshalltown, Iowa, plant, said, “One ICE agent danced around us during the raid and sang, ‘It’s no fun to be an illegal alien.’ Those who were held were treated like criminals.”

Sergio Rodríguez, with 25 years at the Greeley, Colorado, plant, said that he “told the ICE agent that I came from Mexico many years ago and had legal documents to live here, but he would not take off the handcuffs so I could show him my identification.”

María Cruz from Worthington, Minnesota, said, “I was seven months pregnant at the time of the raid and was held without food, water, or allowed to go to the bathroom for five hours.” Alma López, from the same plant, added, “I was forced to change my clothes in front of the male ICE agents and was searched by them despite my request for a female cop in the Swift locker room.”

Mike Graves, a Black worker at the Marshalltown plant, said “I was born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa, and the ICE agent asked me multiple times for my identity, while I was held in handcuffs for several hours. My government, through the ICE agents, accused me of trying to run away and treated me like a criminal.”

ICE officials reported that of the 1,297 people arrested in those raids, 649 have been deported and 274 charged with identity theft—a criminal charge—and other immigration violations, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

UFCW officials said the Omaha meeting was the first such response to the nationwide Swift raids, and another meeting will take place in Chicago. Union spokesperson Ryan Rauzon said their goal is to push for Congressional hearings on the raids and “a citizen review panel to investigate” constitutional violations, as well as to prepare a union lawsuit against the government.

Nothing was said at the meeting about responding to the July 10 raids in which ICE arrested more than 25 people at the six plants, including Braulio Pereyra-Gabino, president of UFCW Local 1149, which represents workers at the Swift plant in Marshalltown and at the Tyson plant in Perry, Iowa. Pereyra-Gabino is charged with “harboring illegal aliens,” which carries a five-year maximum prison sentence.

U.S. attorney Lester Paff charged in court papers that “Braulio Pereyra-Gabino’s union orientation speech was designed to protect the individual identities of illegal aliens within the worker group,” the Des Moines Register reported. It said court papers also indicate that an undercover cop recorded a version of that speech on Aug. 22, 2006.

“We are looking forward to Braulio having his day in court,” international UFCW spokeswoman Jill Cashen told the Register.

About a dozen rightists from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps protested outside the August 16 union meeting. They verbally baited those who drove into the meeting, and carried U.S. flags and signs reading, “We support ICE, good job for the raids,” “We need more raids,” “One Nation One Language,” and “Illegals have no rights.” Most of them remained outside during the entire seven-hour meeting.

At the union meeting, members of a local civil rights group handed out leaflets to publicize a counterprotest to a September 1 rally at the Mexican Consulate in Omaha called by the American Socialist Movement, a fascist group.
 
 
Related articles:
L.A. march: ‘No to raids, deportations!’
Day laborers in Virginia fight for right to seek work
At Nebraska meeting, meat packers denounce raids
Stop the raids and deportations!  
 
 
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