page_title: Swift raids
section_title: Responses and aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Swift raids / Responses and aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Michael Chertoff, United States Secretary of Homeland Security.
context_page_description: The 2006 Swift raids were a coordinated effort by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain and deport people who are undocumented.
  On Tuesday, December 12, 2006, ICE raided six Swift & Company meatpacking plants in the midwestern United States. Workers were detained in central areas of these plants, where they were searched and interrogated. About 1,300 workers, accused of immigration violations and identity theft, were arrested and bused to detention facilities; most were deported.
  ICE's "Operation Wagon Train", which culminated in the Swift raids, represented a new stage of immigration enforcement. The operation marked the beginning of increased workplace actions, as well as the special targeting of illegal immigrants who were also accused of crimes. It was the largest workplace immigration raid in U.S. history.
context_section_description: On December 13, 2006, Michael Chertoff (Secretary of Homeland Security), Julie L. Myers (Director of ICE), and Deborah Platt Majoras (Chair of the Federal Trade Commission) claimed responsibility for the raid and emphasized the importance of the identity theft charges. Said Chertoff, "...this is not only a case about illegal immigration, which is bad enough. It's a case about identity theft in violation of the privacy rights and the economic rights of innocent Americans." Chertoff described the specific case of a man in Texas who was pulled over and arrested because his Social Security number was in use by an illegal worker. Myers later called the raid "righteous" for the same reason.
  Minnesota Roman Catholic bishops condemned the raid, saying it "heartlessly divided families, disrupted the whole community of Worthington and undermined progress that that city had made toward bridging racial and cultural differences." They also criticized the government for making the arrests on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
  A manager and a union organizer in Marshalltown, Iowa, were later convicted of helping people to get jobs at Swift without proper documentation. No charges were brought against Swift's corporate officials. Swift complained that it was under pressure from both sides, having been sued in 2002 for discriminating against workers in its efforts to ensure that they were correctly documented.
  The raids also had a substantial economic impact on Swift, and some business commentators claim that the loss of workers led to the company's 2007 acquisition by JBS. A 2009 study reported that Swift was paying better wages because of the need to attract new workers. Somalis, Burmese, and other political refugees from East African countries were hired to fill the void left by the deportations. According to one 2008 law review, the severity of this action increased pressure on other employers to comply with ICE's worker verification protocol (ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers, or "IMAGE").
caption: Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security 2005–2009
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