ICE chills Pilgrim’s workforce

By ASHLEY TOMPKINS - Tribune City Editor
Saturday, August 4, 2007 2:52 PM CDT

As the federal government prepares to announce new immigration rules and fines for employers hiring illegal immigrants, Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation has confirmed it recently fired employees at Mount Pleasant, Lufkin and Nacogdoches plants for Social Security number and name discrepancies.

The workers were terminated after they were unable to clarify the flaws in their paperwork with the company. The company had announced employees would have to explain the inconsistency and had some time to do so.

Rumors of 75 employees being terminated at the Mount Pleasant plant were unconfirmed by Ray Atkinson, Pilgrim’s Pride director of corporate communications. He further declined to comment on the number of employees terminated in Lufkin and Nacogdoches.

“For some time now, the company has followed a policy whereby employees with Social Security, name and number discrepancies are terminated after being given opportunities to clarify any inaccuracies,” Atkinson said in a statement to the Tribune.

He would not say how long the time period was to clarify employment records.

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Rumors of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids and arrests at the Mount Pleasant plant have been swirling around town. Atkinson declined to comment on the rumors, noting company policy. As of last week, no raid or arrests had taken place in Mount Pleasant or Pittsburg, according to the ICE office in Dallas.

Atkinson has said the company reviews employment information, but abiding by this country’s immigration laws is difficult because of the “strict prohibitions against requesting too many documents or requiring that applicants present a specific document during the hiring process.”

Still, the company said it is committed to follow the immigration laws and does so, Atkinson noted, by participating in the Basic Pilot Program, which determines new hire employment eligibility.

The program, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security, confirms the Social Security number and personal information of the applicant using an automated system. The system verifies checks of the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services databases.

Basic Pilot does not recognize identity theft situations.

“It is significant to note that the company’s Social Security mismatch policy predated the proposed ICE rule on mismatches,” Atkinson said.

With news of final regulations implementing the rules of the Social Security mismatch rule expected to be soon, Atkinson said the company’s existing policy will be reviewed and adapted as needed.

Under the drafted rule, issued by the Bush Administration as a crackdown on illegal immigrants, employees have up to 60 days to resolve any name or Social Security number discrepancies on their W-2 forms that do not match the government’s database.

Fines ranging from $250 to $10,000 per illegal worker and incident await those employers who do not comply with the new rule, which the Department of Homeland Security says will guide employers on how to deal with workers who receive no-match letters and what to do if the matter is not resolved during the 60-day period, The Associated Press reports.

For years, information discrepancies were reported by the Social Security Administration by way of a no-match letter, which was sent to workers and their employers alerting them of inaccurate information listed with the administration.

Employers are prohibited from hiring illegal workers, but up until now had been warned to be careful in firing an employee with a no-match letter since the discrepancy could be as harmless as a typo in their name or number, or computer error.

However, with the new rule, if errors in the name or Social Security number are not cleared up within 60 days and the employer cannot verify the workers legal status, those workers can be terminated.

Employers who comply with the new rules receive immunity from penalties if an illegal worker were to be found at their business during an investigation or raid, according to the AP.

As far as those rumors of raids and arrests at Mount Pleasant’s Pilgrim’s Pride plant, one employee, whose name is being withheld to protect his identify, said he believes the country’s largest chicken processing plant is working closely with ICE to show they are willing to do what it takes to obey immigration laws.

He’d like to see Pilgrim’s Pride work with ICE to issue permits to those illegal employees so that they can still work.

He said rumors of an ICE raid one week ago caused a number of employees to not show up for work and caused only two of the eight lines at the processing plant to be in operation

“I think the company is working with ICE to show them they are doing things the proper way,” said the employee. “Pilgrim’s wants to show everything is legal, but it’s the company that hurts the most.”

Atkinson declined to comment..