Assessing the Impact of Immigration Enforcement Actions at Six Facilities
On December 12, 2006, about 1,300 illegal immigrants working at sixmeat processing plants owned by Swift & Co. were arrested in thelargest immigration enforcement action in U.S. history. Other illegalworkers, fearful of future raids, stopped reporting to work.Additionally, in the months prior to the raids, new employee screeningby Swift led to the loss of about 400 illegal workers. The plants arelocated in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, and Utah. Thisreport examines the raids and their aftermath.
Among the report’s findings:
- As is the case in the entire industry, work at the six Swift plants is characterized by difficult and dangerous conditions.
- Like the rest of the industry, workers at these facilities haveseen a steady decline in their standard of living. Government data showthat the average wages of meatpackers in 2007 were 45 percent lowerthan in 1980, adjusted for inflation.
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To replenish its depleted ranks, Swift implemented a multi-prongedstrategy to recruit workers. The company increased wages and offeredbonuses both to workers who recruited others and to newcomers whostayed on the job for specified periods of time. It opened recruitingoffices in the Texas border towns of El Paso and McAllen and sentrecruiting teams across the Plains States. It bought newspaper, radio,and television advertising, particularly in Spanish-language media. Itbriefly contracted with Manpower, Inc. Along the highway to Cactus, aSwift billboard flattered potential recruits with the declaration that“The quality of our meat is surpassed only by the quality of ourpeople.”