001218 INS Raids Omaha Meat Plant

Omaha, NE - A vice president and five other workers at a meatpacking plant were charged with conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants to work for the company.

Immigration and Naturalization Service agents also arrested 220 undocumented workers on Tuesday during a raid of the Nebraska Beef plant, which employs more than 1,600 people.

The plant's vice president of human resources, personnel manager and production manager and three recruiters were charged in a criminal warrant.

“Our priority was to arrest the midlevel managers involved,” said Jerry Heinauer, director of the Nebraska-Iowa INS field office.

Officials alleged that suspected illegal immigrants were brought by the busload from El Paso, Texas, given fraudulent Social Security numbers and put to work in the plant.

If the six are convicted, they face up to 10 years in federal prison and $250,000 in fines.

The undocumented workers face administrative proceedings to remove them from the United States. Seven women were released from custody because they were either pregnant or were mothers of small children born in the United States.

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