Vol. 71/No. 36      October 1, 2007

“They came around 9:35 a.m. I got a call on my cell phone that the migra was there,” a worker who asked to remain anonymous told the Militant. “Cops in unmarked cars had surrounded the egg farm together with the migra about two minutes before. We got into a car and took off and ran into the police right way. When we took off, the migra followed us. Another car with workers got stuck, but we managed to get away.”

“I think the raids are racism,” he said. “We just want to work.”

ICE spokesperson Tim Counts said that most of the workers, who are originally from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, “will end up being deported. Our agency has determined they are in the country illegally.”

The farmland around Clarion is dotted with egg processing and hog confinement operations, many owned by DeCoster Farms. Some workers told the Militant that they are paid $7.00 an hour. Others get paid piece rate.

“The companies need us,” said a woman who works in a hog confinement facility and asked that her name not be used. “My husband is a midwife to the pigs,” she joked. “He takes care of them when they give birth. I tell him, what would the company do if we didn’t come to work for a week or two? They can’t raise the pigs without us.”

In 2001 and 2006 immigration cops arrested more than 120 workers during raids on DeCoster facilities. According to the Des Moines Register, the recent raid “was a follow-up to a 2003 action against Austin ‘Jack’ DeCoster, the company’s owner, who pleaded guilty in federal court in Sioux City to two counts of aiding and abetting the continued employment of illegal immigrants.”

As part of the plea bargain reached in that case, DeCoster, who got five years’ probation, agreed to a five-year program that enables ICE to inspect the company’s records and facilities unannounced.

In 2002 DeCoster Farms agreed to pay $1.5 million to women workers who were raped and abused by supervisors. According to Rural Migration News, the women said that supervisors “sexually assaulted female employees and threatened to kill those who complained.”
 
 
Related articles:
Meat packers union sues ICE over Swift raids
Political activist fighting deportation speaks at N.Y. forum  
 
 
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