Homeland Security agents raided Swift & Company meatpacking plants in six states this week, arresting 1,282 workers. The arrests of these undocumented immigrants at meatpacking plants highlight a new trend in employment fraud: illegal immigrants buying identity documents of real U.S. citizens.

Rachel Swarns of the New York Times reports that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has announced a new plan to crack down on illegal immigrants who use stolen identities to get jobs.

Of the 1,282 workers arrested, 65 were charged with identity theft or other crimes. The rest face administrative charges for being in the United States illegally and will probably be deported. Swift & Company was not charged with any criminal or civil violations.

According to Chertoff, the illegal immigrants used the stolen identities of hundreds of American citizens to get jobs at Swift & Company. He warned that Homeland Security planned to aggressively pursue document-theft rings and the illegal immigrant workers who use them, even though he said that “when we remove the illegal workers, there’s going to be some kind of a slowdown.”

This entry was posted on Friday, December 15th, 2006 at 7:04 am and is filed under ID Theft Prevention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.