INB 1/5/07: Farmworkers Detained After Fire

Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 10, No. 1 - January 5, 2007

1. NY: Farmworkers Detained After Fire
2. Alliant Gets ICE Ammo Contract
3. Border Chopper Crashes
4. Swift to Lose $30 Million from Raids
5. Supreme Court Reverses Deportation

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*1. NY: FARMWORKERS DETAINED AFTER FIRE

An 18-year old immigrant from Guatemala who worked as a farmhand died of asphyxiation due to smoke inhalation in a Dec. 31 fire at a farmhouse in Palatine, in Montgomery County, New York. The victim's name was being withheld until next of kin could be notified. The cause of the fire is believed to be accidental, according to Sheriff Michael Amato. Searchers found the man's body in a crawl space off the bedroom where the fire apparently started, sheriff's deputies said.

During the investigation, authorities discovered that three other farm workers who lived at the house were from Guatemala and were in the US illegally, Sheriff Amato said. The three were taken into custody and are being held for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, said Amato. [Utica Observer-Dispatch 1/3/07; AP 1/3/07]

*2. ALLIANT GETS ICE AMMO CONTRACT

Alliant Techsystems, based in Edina, Minnesota, has been awarded a five-year contract with the Homeland Security Department to provide rifle and pistol ammunition. The contract's potential value is more than $90 million, including a $75 million order for rifle ammunition for ICE, according to Alliant spokesperson Bryce Hallowell. Work on the contracts will be performed by facilities in Anoka, Minnesota and Lewiston, Idaho. [St. Paul Pioneer Press 1/5/07]

*3. BORDER CHOPPER CRASHES

On Jan. 2, a California National Guard helicopter assisting the Border Patrol crashed in the mountains about 20 miles southeast of downtown San Diego. Two National Guard soldiers and three Border Patrol agents were hospitalized with neck and back injuries; another two Border Patrol agents and two Guard members survived the crash unhurt. On Jan. 3, officials grounded the remaining six Guard helicopters doing border duty, including one UH-1 Huey and five OH-58 observation craft. The chopper that crashed was a 1973 Huey transport helicopter; Col. Mitchell Medigovich, an aviation expert who is leading the California National Guard's investigation into the crash, said it was one of six Hueys left over from the Vietnam war era still flown by the state Guard. [AP 1/3/07]

*4. SWIFT TO LOSE $30 MILLION FROM RAIDS

Swift & Co. said on Jan. 4 that a series of Dec. 12 immigration raids at its six of seven meatpacking plants nationwide [see INB 12/15/06] are expected to cost the company $30 million. Swift, the nation's third-largest processor of fresh beef and pork, said it has hired hundreds of new workers to replace employees who were detained, incurring about $10 million in hiring incentives and worker-retention efforts. The company expects to lose $20 million more in lost operating efficiency as workers are trained. Swift is operating on all shifts but likely won't "return to a state of normalcy" until the end of this year, said Don Wiseman, the company's general counsel. "We might have the warm bodies back, but they do not represent the same efficiency and skill level we had on the morning of Dec. 12," he said. [Denver Post 1/5/07] The nearly 1,300 workers arrested in the raids amounted to about 9% of the company's work force. Swift's two main rivals, Cargill and Tyson, ramped up their production after the raids. [Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 1/5/07]

A contract dated Dec. 4 between ICE and the Iowa National Guard indicates that ICE was prepared to house up to 1,100 workers arrested in the Dec. 12 raids for as many as 10 nights at Camp Dodge in Johnston, Iowa, just north of Des Moines. That level of use would have cost ICE $32,000, but the site was used for fewer days in December and housed about 500 people detained during the Dec. 12 raids at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Marshalltown, Iowa and in five other states. Officials at Camp Dodge said they had not finished invoicing ICE for actual services used. The contract, which Guard officials were barred from discussing without permission from ICE, showed that ICE reserved access to communications support, cleaning services, beds and 1,100 sets of linens. Camp Dodge was not asked to provide food. "We brought in our own food," said ICE spokesperson Jamie Zuieback. Zuieback said the contract appears to contradict claims by Gov. Tom Vilsack and Iowa National Guard Maj. Gen. Ron Dardis that they were not adequately informed of the size and scope of the raid [see INB 12/21/06]. [Marshalltown Times Republican 1/2/07 from AP]

*5. SUPREME COURT REVERSES DEPORTATION

On Dec. 5, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of an immigrant deported for a first-time drug conviction in South Dakota. "Conduct that is a felony under state law but a misdemeanor under the Controlled Substances Act is not a felony for purposes of immigration," stated the majority opinion by Justice David Souter in the case, Lopez v. Gonzales, 05-7664. Jose Antonio Lopez became a lawful permanent resident in 1990; in 1997 he pled guilty to state charges of aiding and abetting possession of drugs for having told someone where to obtain cocaine. He served 15 months in prison for the crime, which is a felony in South Dakota but a misdemeanor under the federal Controlled Substances Act. Treating a misdemeanor under the federal law as a felony for deportation purposes "would be so much trickery," Souter wrote. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented.

The ruling means Lopez and others in the same situation are not barred from seeking relief from deportation, and that immigration judges have the discretion to allow them to stay in the US. Lopez was deported to Mexico in January 2006; one of his lawyers said he could now file a request to cancel his removal order and return to his US citizen wife and children. [AP 12/5/06; Los Angeles Times 12/6/06]

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