Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Owners of raided Mississippi plants ‘willfully’ used ineligible workers

The statements unsealed Thursday allege that managers at two processing plants owned by the same Chinese man actively participated in fraud. They also show that supervisors at other plants at least turned a blind eye to evidence strongly suggesting job applicants were using fraudulent documents and bogus Social Security numbers.

The documents say electronic monitoring bracelet data shows people previously arrested for immigration violations and not allowed to work in the U.S. were working at all seven plants raided.

Investigators allege the most brazen fraud took place at two smaller chicken processing plants — PH Food Inc. in Morton and A&B Inc. in Pelahatchie. Sworn statements identify Huo You Liang of California, known to Mississippi employees as Victor, as owner of both.

A PH Food employee, acting as a confidential informant, told Homeland Security investigators that the vast majority of the 240 employees at PH's plant in Morton and the 80 employees at A&B's plant in Pelahatchie didn't have proper work documents, including many Guatemalans.

The evidence also included a video and audio conversation involving secretary Heather Carrillo and the informant, recorded May 14 at PH in Morton. A summary says, "Carrillo said that she was looking for some 'papers' for 'Iris,' but 'Iris wasn't going anywhere because she was working with Victor (Huo You Liang) for a good time (duration of employment).'" It says Carrillo said A&B manager Salvador Delgado didn't want it reported because Carrillo knew which of his employees were real and which were fraudulent.

The agent notes investigators believe Delgado was embezzling money from A&B by adding fraudulent names and Social Security numbers to the payroll and keeping the proceeds.

One woman told agents that a Spanish-speaking human resources employee at Koch Foods in Morton looked at two different IDs in three weeks. Ana Santizo-Tapia of Guatemala also told agents that a Koch supervisor asked if she had an ankle bracelet. Told yes, "he said it was okay, but she needed to keep it charged," according to the warrant. The supervisor "stated that he knew 'they' were poor and came to the United States to work."

Documents: Owners of raided Mississippi plants ‘willfully’ used ineligible workers
By The Associated Press
BY JEFF AMY

JACKSON, Miss. — Six of seven Mississippi chicken processing plants raided Wednesday were “willfully and unlawfully” employing people who lacked authorization to work in the United States, including workers wearing electronic monitoring bracelets at work for previous immigration violations, according to unsealed court documents.

Federal investigators behind the biggest immigration raid in a decade relied on confidential informants inside the plants in addition to data from the monitoring bracelets to help make their case, according to the documents.

The sworn statements supported the search warrants that led a judge to authorize Wednesday's raids, and aren't official charges, but give the first detailed look at the evidence involved in what Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have described as a yearlong investigation.

Officials arrested 680 people during Wednesday’s operation. Three Democratic congressmen on Friday demanded that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice produce information. They want to know the cost of the raids, whether employers face criminal charges, whether any U.S. citizens were detained, how many parents were separated from children and whether any still remain separated.

The statements unsealed Thursday allege that managers at two processing plants owned by the same Chinese man actively participated in fraud. They also show that supervisors at other plants at least turned a blind eye to evidence strongly suggesting job applicants were using fraudulent documents and bogus Social Security numbers.

The documents say electronic monitoring bracelet data shows people previously arrested for immigration violations and not allowed to work in the U.S. were working at all seven plants raided.

There have historically been few criminal convictions for hiring people without documents because prosecutors must prove employers knowingly hired someone without legal work authorization. Employers often say they were fooled by fraudulent documents.

From October 2018 to May there were eight new prosecutions for hiring people working illegally and four new convictions nationwide. Among those who have been sentenced to prison are the owner of an Iowa meatpacking plant raided in 2008 and owner of a Tennessee meatpacking plant raided last year.

Companies can also face administrative fines based on audits of I-9 forms, which employees fill out when they're hired, presenting documents to prove they can work legally work.

Investigators allege the most brazen fraud took place at two smaller chicken processing plants — PH Food Inc. in Morton and A&B Inc. in Pelahatchie. Sworn statements identify Huo You Liang of California, known to Mississippi employees as Victor, as owner of both.

A PH Food employee, acting as a confidential informant, told Homeland Security investigators that the vast majority of the 240 employees at PH's plant in Morton and the 80 employees at A&B's plant in Pelahatchie didn't have proper work documents, including many Guatemalans.

The informant said employees used their real names and made-up Social Security numbers to apply for jobs at PH and A&B. "The payroll companies, as well as PH Food Inc. and A&B Inc. do not verify the authenticity of their documents," the informant told investigators. Mississippi state law requires employers to check documents using E-Verify, an otherwise voluntary online federal system.

Calls to A&B and PH Food on Friday went unanswered.

The evidence also included a video and audio conversation involving secretary Heather Carrillo and the informant, recorded May 14 at PH in Morton. A summary says, "Carrillo said that she was looking for some 'papers' for 'Iris,' but 'Iris wasn't going anywhere because she was working with Victor (Huo You Liang) for a good time (duration of employment).'" It says Carrillo said A&B manager Salvador Delgado didn't want it reported because Carrillo knew which of his employees were real and which were fraudulent.

The agent notes investigators believe Delgado was embezzling money from A&B by adding fraudulent names and Social Security numbers to the payroll and keeping the proceeds.

The warrants state PH Food uses Personnel Management Inc. of Shreveport, Louisiana, to process payroll and perform some human resource functions, and that investigators believed Liang and Carrillo tried to use the contractor to minimize responsibility for illegally employing workers.

Officials earlier stated that in addition to the chicken plants, they executed a search warrant in Louisiana on Wednesday. ICE spokesman Bryan Cox declined Friday to confirm that Personnel Management had been searched. The company didn't respond Friday to a phone message and email.

Search warrants for some other poultry plants also indicate red flags about employees' status.

One woman told agents that a Spanish-speaking human resources employee at Koch Foods in Morton looked at two different IDs in three weeks. Ana Santizo-Tapia of Guatemala also told agents that a Koch supervisor asked if she had an ankle bracelet. Told yes, "he said it was okay, but she needed to keep it charged," according to the warrant. The supervisor "stated that he knew 'they' were poor and came to the United States to work."

Another Koch employee said she worked at one plant in Morton for 11 months under a false name, and then got a job at the town's second Koch plant under her real name after receiving valid U.S. documents.

Koch said in a statement Friday that the Illinois company has a "strict and thorough employment verification policy" and knows of no managers or supervisors arrested.

A human resources employee at Peco Foods plant in Bay Springs plant talked to an ICE informant about people hired twice under different names, according to the warrant application. The human resources employee stated that "Peco Foods management does not care."

A Friday statement from Peco said the company relies on E-Verify and "adheres strongly to all local, state and federal laws."

___

Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans and data journalist Angeliki Kastanis in Los Angeles contributed.

Of course they did. This is why BOTH political parties have been slow to do anything about illegal immigration. The Democrats want their votes, and the Republicans want the cheap labor.

...Tyson Foods, based in Springdale, Ark., was a staunch campaign contributor and supporter of Bill Clinton during the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections, as well as his gubernatorial races in Arkansas. ...

Updated March 17, 1994 11:59 pm ET

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- High in his skybox here at Bud Walton Arena, poultry tycoon Don Tyson recently entertained Patricia Jensen, an Agriculture Department official from Washington, at an Arkansas-Vanderbilt basketball game.

Ms. Jensen is in line to become assistant secretary in charge of meat and poultry inspection. But this day she was the one under inspection by Mr. Tyson, Mr. Chicken himself, a longtime Clinton friend and campaign bankroller.

"Very definitely," she says, "I had the feeling of being looked over."

Few corporations in America have stronger personal ties to Bill Clinton than Arkansas-based Tyson Foods Inc., and few have fared better in their dealings with his Agriculture Department.

Tyson Foods, the nation's largest meat processor, has long cultivated close ties to influential politicians, generously backing Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Two Tyson executives were eventually convicted and received prison terms in the case, but President Clinton later pardoned the men. Mr. Espy was acquitted.

Tyson officials called the gifts an ''act of common hospitality'' and said the company was drawn into a political battle because of its ties to Mr. Clinton.

Don Tyson was an early supporter of Mr. Clinton's campaigns for public office in Arkansas. Though he opposed Mr. Clinton's gubernatorial re-election campaign in 1980, Mr. Tyson returned to the Clinton camp in later campaigns.

Mr. Tyson and Mr. Clinton also shared close friends, including James B. Blair, for many years the general counsel of Tyson Foods. It was Mr. Blair who in the late 1970's placed many of the trades that helped Hillary Rodham Clinton make a profit of nearly $100,000 in the cattle futures market.

A batch of '90s-era White House memos from Rahm Emanuel to former President Bill Clinton reveal a shrewd political mind motivated by messaging rather than ideology.

The documents, posted on the Chicago Sun-Times' site, were recently made public among the archives at Clinton's presidential library in Arkansas after 12 years of concealment.

They show the 54-year-old Chicago mayor -- a senior adviser to Clinton circa 1993-1998 -- urging the president to crack down on undocumented immigrants and take a stronger stand on combating crime as part of a strategy to appropriate GOP platforms for political gain....

Of course they did. This is why BOTH political parties have been slow to do anything about illegal immigration. The Democrats want their votes, and the Republicans want the cheap labor.

...The motel owner in Noel bought the run-down hunting lodge motel for $220,000 and reopened it to house migrant chicken workers in 1994. Because poultry work is considered nonfarm work, it is not subject to special farm worker housing inspection, only normal local health and safety screening. The motel takes every new Hudson worker to apply for Food Stamps at the local welfare agency, the Division of Family Services. The number of Latinos receiving Food Stamps in Noel increased from 35 per month in 1993 to 375 per month in 1996.

Hudson is the economic linchpin of Noel, Missouri, but the plant, just outside city limits, pays no property taxes to the city. The number of Latino students in Noel's elementary school rose from 25 to more than 100. ...

https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=162



(Hudson was bought out by long time competitor Tyson back in 1997 after a major recall of approx. 25 million pounds of Hudson's ground beef due to contamination. Both were headquartered in Arkansas. )

Yawn......Wake me up when someone/anyone is actually in jail.