Officials in the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau say that about 220 of the estimated 1,300 workers arrested in last month's raid on the Swift & Co. meat plants now face criminal identity theft charges, as well as other infractions.Hey Kids, GUESS the actual arrest number....
The Swift raid was the biggest U.S. workplace raid in recent history, costing the meat plant an estimated $30 million in lost revenue. In fact, Swift & Co. says it has still not reached its pre-raid production levels, with plants targeted across the country, including those in Greeley, Colorado; Grand Island, Nebraska; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minnesota.
Although some 220 workers were arrested during the December 12th raids, which ICE officials called a crackdown on an identity-theft scheme, some of those detained claim their rights were violated.
In fact, a federal judge heard opening arguments in a lawsuit filed by The United Food and Commercial Workers union in U.S. District Court in Denver, which claims the federal government violated the workers' due process rights during the December raids.
[ citing Criminal Charges Continue To Mount In Meat Packing Raids ]
Clearly it must be progressive Progress, that at least some fraction of those arrested are actually going to go on trialish, give or take, the chance that they actually get to trial, since, well, as a nation, we are in the process of not only detatching detention from arrest, and that from indictment, from trial....
It is soooo great to see us GitMoIzing the Mainland, now that more americans support the Divine Right of the Great Leader to detain anyone anywhere for any reason....
What will be interesting, as we wander through this Swiftian Fantasy Land, is the question of whether or not the State will get all Whiney about the Corporate Suit Types, and whether or not any of them were involved in this Massive Konspirakii.... Gosh, wonder what would happen if any of the Corporate Overlords were suddenly detained in the same ratio - you know haul in some 1,300 of them, and maybe indict say, oh 200 of them.... How far down the Corporate Overlord Ladder would that take them????
Ah yes, once upon a time, in the dark EVIL DAYS, Red Kommunist Holyweird made Evil Demonic Films like Border Incident (1949) where the Mexican and Americans worked together to go after the Evil Doers who were hiring Illegals... Ah yes, back when Ricardo Montalban was still a young, dynamic and socially relevant actor....
You know, back in the EVIL DAYS, when the veterans fresh back from WWII were a bit more active about taking care of the folks who had kept america free, and were interested in keeping those Rhetorical Devices as, well, an active part of our Actual Culture, and not merely Vacuous Holy Symbols to be reveared in the emptiness of their mere Symbolism....
Thank GOD we are so pass those times....