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Date Posted: 07:16:25 01/07/08 Mon
Author: JMR (Papers Please!)
Subject: Company busted for iring illegals

http://www.statesma n.com/news/ content/news/ stories/local/ 01/07/0107sting. html


Phony ID scheme busted in undercover operation, feds say
Government documents say Pilgrim's Pride knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

By Anabelle Garay
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, January 07, 2008
DALLAS — For years, federal agents had received tips alleging that undocumented immigrants were working at plants owned by Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the nation's largest chicken producer.
In the spring, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Dallas acted on leads that pointed toward two of the company's seven East Texas plants.
According to federal court records, undercover agents posing as illegal immigrants infiltrated a network of job-seekers who paid hundreds of dollars for fraudulent identification while those responsible for hiring them looked the other way.
By the time the investigation wrapped up in December, agents had arrested 24 people, including:
A Pilgrim's Pride employee accused of dealing identification documents.
A human resources employee at the company's Mount Pleasant facility.
Two men who were part of the scheme to get identification documents for illegal immigrants, agents say. Twenty other workers at Pilgrim's Pride plants in Mount Pleasant and Pittsburg were accused of using Social Security numbers not issued to them.
The matter is expected to go to a federal grand jury this month. Newly unsealed court documents that lay out the government's case offer a glimpse into what prosecutors say is a complicit circle of illegal workers, document dealers and trusted employees.
It's the latest effort by the government to pursue illegal immigrant workers and the employers who hire them. Federal agents arrested more than 1,200 workers at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants nationwide in 2006 as part of a similar investigation.
In the Pilgrim's case, an affidavit by Special Agent George Ramirez revealed that the agency has received more than 75 calls since 2005 about illegal immigrant workers at the company's plants. Fourteen human resources employees were suspected of knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants, Ramirez stated.
Ray Atkinson, a spokesman for the Pittsburg-based company, said Pilgrim's Pride is not facing charges and is cooperating fully. The company has about 55,000 employees and operates dozens of facilities, mostly across the South and in Mexico and Puerto Rico.
"Our company is very concerned about any allegations of this type," Atkinson said.
In a statement, Pilgrim's Pride added that its employees are trained to spot fraudulent documents, verify Social Security numbers and make sure applicants are eligible to work in the U.S. The company said the system isn't foolproof.
"The HR employee who was taken into custody has been terminated from employment," Atkinson said in a statement.
According to Ramirez's affidavit, undercover federal agents penetrated the Pilgrim's ring by claiming to be undocumented workers eager to purchase papers needed to land "good" jobs at the chicken plants.
Among the accused are Marcos Garcia and Daniel "Chilango" Totosaus-Rodriguez. According to the affidavit, the pair sold doctored documents to a confidential informant to get a job at Pilgrim's Mount Pleasant site. If convicted, they could face up to 15 years in prison.
The affidavit said that the two men guaranteed their wares, promising to replace the documents at no extra charge if Pilgrim's discovered a Social Security number to be invalid. They also told agents that employees in Pilgrim's human resources office wouldn't question the applicants because "everyone knows what's going on," the affidavit said.
Garcia met the informant in April, the affidavit said, and offered help him get a job at Pilgrim's for $800: $600 for the documents and a $200 "finder's fee" for himself. Attorneys for Garcia and Totosaus-Rodriguez didn't immediately return calls for comment.
Federal officials said the scheme caused hardships for some whose identities were stolen. One of the true holders of a Social Security number received a notice from the Internal Revenue Service asking for back taxes on wages he purportedly earned. And an Illinois nursing home resident nearly lost his disability benefits because it appeared he was employed

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