Vol. 71/No. 34      September 17, 2007

More than 300 local and federal cops descended on the Koch Foods plant. They blocked the exits, forcing some workers to hide, including inside a subzero freezer. A few had to be treated for hypothermia after they were found, according to an ICE spokesperson and others on the scene.

The raid was the largest in the Cincinnati area this year, and among the 20 largest in the country, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

The Cincinnati Post quoted Jayme Mejía, who spent the morning at the plant trying to find out what happened to her husband’s aunt, who worked there. “I received a phone call to go to the house and get her paperwork,” Mejía said. “I gave it to the officer and that’s it.” She was later told by a cop that her aunt might have already been on a bus that left for an “undisclosed location.”

Federal agents also simultaneously raided Koch’s offices in Chicago where they took records as part of a two-year investigation on the company’s hiring practices.

Twenty of the workers arrested have been charged with falsifying identities.

A group of immigrant rights supporters protested the arrests at an ICE news conference held following the operation. “These raids are an outrage,” Dan LaBotz, a member of the Coalition for the Rights and Dignity of Immigrants, told the press. “These are working people.”

A legal petition has been filed on behalf of the detained workers to try to prevent the immigration agency from moving them from Ohio or deporting them before they can meet with their lawyers.
 
 
Related articles:
‘Stop ICE raids!’
Workers in Boston protest immigration sweep
Ireland: immigrants, women swell workforce ranks  
 
 
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