It is unfortunate that The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News have not seen fit to question the basis for the recent raids conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Swift plants in Greeley and five other locations.
There is a great deal of concern about the justification and timing of the ICE raids, which were conducted on the most holy of celebrations for Hispanics, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In addition to the raids themselves being a traumatic event, there is concern about the strategy of using “identity theft” as a pretext for conducting the raids in support of a Bush administration ploy to force Congress to take action on immigration reform.
The thrust of statements coming from these agencies has centered around “identity theft” and allegations that these individuals were “victimizing U.S. citizens” and “stealing U.S. identities.” According to one report in The Denver Post, only 65 out of 1,282 individuals arrested were charged with criminal activity, including “illegal re-entry, identity theft, forgery and other violations.” The vast majority were being held on an “administrative immigration violation,” which is a civil violation of immigration code.
After you subtract the reasons other than identity theft, if remains to be seen just how many workers are being charged with identity theft, even though this is the thrust of ICE’s justification for the raids.
As of this writing, ICE could still not say how many workers were being charged with identity theft or forgery. ICE spokesmen Jeff Dishart stated that “this was a major identity-theft scheme that was taken down,” yet not arrest one document trafficker was arrested. ICE clearly created the impression through misleading statements that it was the majority of workers who were being arrested for identity theft, although there may only be a handful charged with such an offense.
In Colorado, only 11 out of 250 individuals were arrested on potential criminal violations. There is also deep concern about workers who were taken away simply because they did not have their papers with them. Two people identified in the paper were legal workers taken into custody with no justification, presumably because they were Hispanic. In fact, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck only signed 25 warrants against workers at the Swift plant in Greeley.
What is even more disturbing are reports that ICE made no preparations or provision for the children of the workers, who were in effect orphaned by these raids. Weld County Social Services and other human service agencies said they were given no notice or opportunity to prepare.
There is grave concern over the possible violations of civil rights and the lack of due process accorded the workers who were arrested. There is no way to know what coercion and duress these workers were subjected to in order to sign voluntary deportation papers which led to their immediate deportation without the opportunity to speak to counsel.
Equally disturbing is a statement by U.S. Attorney Troy Eid, who said in reference to children being abandoned that “violating federal law can lead to tragic consequences, sometimes affecting a great many people. That’s the unblinking reality.”
The administration believes it is OK to play politics with people’s lives in conducting poorly conceived raids and leaving children orphaned in the process.
It is an abomination and national disgrace that we have a government that operates in this fashion. That the government can willfully and intentionally create a situation were children are abandoned with no regard to their health, safety and welfare is in itself a violation of the law.
Mark O’Brien of Denver is a member of Coloradans for Immigrant Rights.
