The US is clamping down on illegal migrants, but it relies on their labour

“Stand with your back to the Swift meat-packing plant in Greeley and you can see the snow-capped Rockies rise over fields of lush farmland. You are 775 miles from El Paso, the nearest crossing to Mexico. But on December 12 last year the border came to Greeley. Dozens of armed immigration agents supported by local police in riot gear stormed the factory. After rounding up the workers they divided them into two groups – the documented and the undocumented. Simultaneous raids at Swift plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas and Utah netted around 1,300 undocumented workers.

Homeland security and immigration and customs enforcement Ice agents claimed the raids were prompted by an inquiry into identity theft. But less than a quarter were charged with using false security cards – the rest were deported. Ices assistant secretary, Julie Myers, said Operation Wagon Train had dealt a major blow in the “war against illegal immigration”.”

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