The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 71/No. 9      March 5, 2007

 
Meat packers seek and get solidarity
to resist impact of immigration raids
(front page)
 
BY HELEN MEYERS  
DES MOINES, Iowa—Thousands of workers and their relatives affected by large-scale immigration raids at six Swift meatpacking plants across the United States are seeking and getting solidarity from fellow workers, trade unions, churches, and others to resist the impact of the government attack.

Hundreds of the nearly 1,300 meat packers arrested December 12 here, and in Colorado, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, and Utah, remain imprisoned. The government has indicted 274 of these workers on state or federal criminal charges, including "identity theft." Nearly 600 have been deported. Some 120 were released because of hardships, such as illnesses or pregnancies, but have to report to a judge for a court hearing.

In Marshalltown, Iowa, supporters of the affected workers have raised $85,000 to aid their families in paying legal bills, rent, utilities, and food as the workers or their relatives try to find new jobs and to be reunited with their loved ones.

A front-page article in the February 12 Des Moines Register was headlined, “If fiancée is deported, I’ll go too, Iowan says.” It told the story of Dulce Hernández Vazquez, a cafeteria worker arrested at the Swift plant in Marshalltown. After her arrest, Hernández, who has two children, was moved from Iowa to Georgia and is now in jail in Gadsden, Alabama. Her fiancé, Robert Braun, is an animal health technician for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Marshalltown plant. He and immigration attorney Ta-Yu Yang are fighting to have Hernández returned to Iowa and released until her court hearing.

Braun said he has lost “all confidence in the government," adding that he is angry at his fiancée's treatment. "There’s no impartialness to all this,” he said. “It's amazing how my view of the justice system has changed.”

In Cactus, Texas, there has been an outpouring of support from throughout the region for the arrested immigrants, according to an article in the February 11 Dallas Morning News. Carol Valdez, an administrator at a local church organizing solidarity donations, said that contributions have come from Oklahoma, Kansas, and across Texas. Many of the workers at the Cactus plant are originally from Quichi, Guatemala, and Chihuahua, Mexico.

Some 3,050 workers were employed at the Cactus plant prior to December 12, of whom 292 were arrested and many were immediately deported. Other workers have reportedly left Cactus to seek work elsewhere in the region.

Imelda Maldonado has been at the plant for more than 25 years and is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 540. She told the Dallas Morning News that production at the Cactus plant has slowed down. The company is hiring more people, she said, but has not replaced all those who were arrested or left. Maldonado said Swift has hired a number of Sudanese workers, who commute daily from Amarillo, Texas.

The February 26 issue of the Nation magazine ran an article on the impact of the raids in Greeley, Colorado.

Local radio announcer Elda Gamez told the Nation that the response to the raids by working people and others in the area continues to build. “All this stuff has made one great change," said Gamez. "That change is unity. We were hit with a very low blow, but it served us well, and we’ve gotten support from people we’ve never heard from before.” An organizing center set up at one of the local churches has reportedly raised $80,000 in contributions. Child care and other services have been set up to ensure that families can remain in the area.

Some of those deported after the December raids have already returned to the United States to find new jobs and be reunited with their families. The Nation interviewed one worker in Greeley who had worked at Swift since 2001. He was arrested December 12, held briefly in an El Paso, Texas, jail, and then “dumped across the border into Juárez,” Mexico. After visiting his hometown, the worker and seven others who had worked at Swift and had been deported returned to Greeley.

According to the Nation, the worker arrived at his Greeley trailer 22 days after being arrested, and was reunited with his family, which includes three children who are between one and eight years old. "I would do it again tomorrow," said the worker, whose name is withheld to avoid reprisals by the government. "And tomorrow and the next day."
 
 
Related articles:
Stop raids, deportations! Legalize all immigrants now!  
 
 
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