990865 Illegal Meat Worker Crackdown Stalled in IowaAugust 28, 1999Washington - A plan by U.S. immigration officials to uncover illegal workers at Iowa meatpacking plants has been stalled by privacy and budget concerns from another government agency, an immigration official said. The Immigration and Naturalization Service planned to shift its “Operation Vanguard” program to Iowa this month, but the Social Security Administration has expressed concern about workers' privacy issues as well as if the agency has enough money and manpower to work with the INS. But INS officials said they expected the situation to clear up soon and Vanguard to focus on Iowa, the nation's largest pork producing state, as planned. “I think in the next couple of weeks we'll get resolution of this,” Michael Went, INS acting district director in Omaha, said. “They are focused on Vanguard, they just need to decide as an agency how they can assist us.” Social Security Administration officials also said they expect the issue will be resolved but noted that the INS is attempting to expand social security's involvement in the project, an effort that has led the agency to analyze if the expansion could stomp on workers' privacy rights. “We want to continue to assist INS and will continue to assist INS,” Brian Coyne, chief of staff at the Social Security Administration, said. But “the right of privacy is an important right and value in this country.” The agency is an integral part of the Operation Vanguard program, providing INS officials with lists of employees who may be carrying fake identification or who may be using a friend or relative's social security number. The meatpacking industry has been targeted because it is considered a magnet for illegal workers in Midwestern states. In an INS study conducted during 1996 and 1997, nearly one-quarter of the workers in seven meatpacking plants in Iowa and in Nebraska had “questionable” identification documents. Thousands of workers quit their jobs at meatpacking plants in Nebraska this spring when the INS initiated its program in that state. The move to make sure immigrant employees had legal permission to work greatly slowed production and pressured cattle prices in Nebraska, industry officials said. Although the meatpacking industry typically has a high rate of turnover, INS officials are concerned that many illegal workers quit their jobs and simply moved across state lines to work at other plants. In addition to Iowa, INS officials also plan to interview workers in Kansas and in Missouri. Approximately 20,000 workers are employed by the meatpacking industry in Iowa. Meatpackers have said they want a legal workforce, but the industry has expressed concern that plants will have a tough time replacing illegal workers when the U.S. jobless rate is so low. Jobs at meatpacking plants are often described as repetitive, unpleasant and sometimes dangerous. The INS's Went said that although his agency hears the meat industry's concerns, it will continue with the crackdown and will eventually extend Operation Vanguard to meatpacking plants nationwide and to other industries, including hotels and restaurants. “As Vanguard is expanded, it is going to be difficult for illegal aliens to get jobs,” Went said, noting that the word has already gotten out in Mexico of the program. “The message is clear and this is the way to do business in the future.”
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