At least 300 people were arrested today at the Agriprocessors, Inc. meat packing plant, federal officials said. The operation, which targeted people who used other persons Social Security numbers was the largest of its kind in Iowa, said Claude Arnold, a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A total of 16 local, state and federal agencies, led by ICE, joined the investigation that began last October. The Agriprocessors plant, known as the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse, is northeast Iowa's largest employer.

Chuck Larson, a truck driver for Agriprocessing, was in the plant when the agents arrived. "There has to be 100 of them," he said of the agents. Larson said the agents told workers to stay in place then separated them by asking those with identification to stand to the right and those with other papers, to stand to the left. "There was plenty of hollering," Larson said. "You couldn't go anywhere." When asked who was separated, Larson said those standing in the group with other papers were all Hispanic.

According to search warrants, ICE agents interviewed a former plant supervisor - identified as "Source 1" - in November 2007, who told them that the plant employed foreign nationals from Mexico, Guatemala and Eastern Europe. Roughly 80 percent of those workers were living illegally in the U.S., the supervisor said. In February 2008, a confidential informant identified as "Source 7," who has worked with federal agents in past immigration cases, detailed several incidents of alleged worker abuse at the plant. The source, who was lawfully employed at the plant, told authorities that a floor supervisor duct-taped the eyes of an illegal Guatemalan employee and
struck him with a meat hook. The blow caused no serious injuries. "Source 7" asked the Guatemalan to report the incident, but the employee said doing so could jeopardize his job.

SOURCE: DesMoines Register