From CIS.org: WASHINGTON (March 16, 2009) – On December 12, 2006, Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel raided six meatpacking plants owned by Swift & Co. in the largest immigration enforcement action in U.S. history. The plants are located in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, Colorado, and Utah. A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies examines the raids and their aftermath. It notes the historical context of an industry whose workers have seen a dramatic decline in wages over the past 30 years as well as the raids’ economic effects. The report also discusses both positive and negative reactions in these six communities.
The report, entitled, “The 2006 Swift Raids: Assessing the Impact of Immigration Enforcement Actions at Six Facilities,” is embargoed until Wednesday, March 18, at 11:59 p.m. when it will be available online at www.cis.org. Advance copies are available to the media.
The report is authored by Jerry Kammer, a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. Before joining CIS, Kammer was a reporter with Copley New Service, where he won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006. In 1990 he received a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for his reporting on conditions of maquiladora factory workers in Mexico.
