020203 Tyson Files Court Papers in Immigration Case

Little Rock, AR - Tyson Foods Inc. says in court papers that federal prosecutors pursuing an immigration case want to effectively put the company on trial twice by calling for a hearing on Tyson's probation from an earlier case.

Tyson says allegations it conspired to smuggle illegal aliens are unfounded and, regardless, should not influence whether the company complied with terms of its probation from its 1998 settlement of influence-peddling allegations.

Tyson said it filed court papers in Washington, D.C., in response to a government request for a hearing on whether Tyson violated its probation.

Tyson's probation in the original case ended Jan. 11, but the current indictment was handed up last year in Chattanooga, Tenn., before the probation expired.

“Simply put, the prosecutors have made clear that the principal purpose for returning the Tennessee indictment ... was to use this court's process as additional pressure on Tyson to pay a 'record' settlement in the (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service) case,” the company said in the filing.

“In particular, the prosecution has demanded that Tyson pay a 'forfeiture' in the 'ballpark' of $100 million -- a demand more than 50 times larger than the previous record payment for an INS violation,” the company said.

With the filing, Tyson included a letter to a Tyson lawyer from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chattanooga in which the $100 million figure is discussed in terms of a possible settlement with the government.

Tyson argues that the law doesn't support such a payment. It has consistently denied the government's claims.

Tyson and six former managers pleaded innocent Jan. 24 to federal charges of conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants to work at a handful of the company's poultry plants.

Tyson officials said that a trial -- tentatively set for February 2003 -- wouldn't show a company conspiracy but instead would show immigrant smuggling by government undercover agents.

The company says the government spent three years working undercover and brought in about 50 undocumented workers to work at fewer than five Tyson plants.

MacCoon, the chief federal prosecutor in Chattanooga, Tenn., where the indictment was handed up, had earlier declined comment on Tyson's claim that the government suggested a settlement in the range of $100 million. He did not immediately return messages left with his office Wednesday evening, and directory assistance had no home listing for him.

In its Wednesday filing, Tyson objected to a prosecution request for an immediate hearing on whether Tyson met terms of its probation. Initially, prosecutors joined Tyson in asking that a hearing on the company's probation be postponed until the immigration matter was settled. But when trial was set for February 2003 rather than October 2002, the government asked for the immediate hearing, Tyson's filing said.

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