Poultry plants are raided

Federal agents arrested hundreds of people Wednesday in raids at Pilgrim’s Pride chicken plants in five states, the latest crackdown on illegal-immigrant labor at the nation’s poultry producers.

In separate sweeps, authorities also arrested dozens of workers at a doughnut factory in Houston and the operators of a chain of Mexican restaurants in upstate New York.

The arrests at Pittsburg, Texas-based Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., the nation’s largest chicken producer, were on charges of identity theft, document fraud and immigration violations. The company worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ahead of the raids, said Ray Atkinson, a company spokesman.

“We knew in advance and cooperated fully,” Atkinson said.

Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary for ICE, confirmed that the company is cooperating, though she said the raids grew out of an investigation that produced arrests last year at the company’s plant here.

No criminal or civil charges have been filed against Pilgrim’s Pride, which has about 55,000 employees and operates dozens of facilities mostly across the South and in Mexico and Puerto Rico, supplying the KFC restaurant chain and other customers.

ICE said that nearly 300 workers were arrested, but Pilgrim’s Pride officials said that about 400 hourly, nonmanagement employees were arrested.

“We have terminated all of the employees who were taken into custody and will terminate any employee who is found to have engaged in similar misconduct. We are investigating these allegations further,” Atkinson said in a statement.

Forty-five people, all illegal immigrants, were arrested here on charges of false use of Social Security numbers, ICE said. More than 100 people were arrested on immigration violations in Chattanooga, Tenn., and they could face criminal charges related to identity theft, the agency said. Another 100 were arrested on immigration charges in Moorefield, W.Va.

More than 25 people face immigration violation charges in Live Oak, Fla. They will also face identity theft or document fraud charges, ICE said. And more than 20 were arrested in Batesville, Ark., on federal warrants for alleged document fraud or identity theft.

Pilgrim’s Pride has had previous trouble with employees in Arkansas. In January 2007, police arrested a manager at the company’s De Queen plant who allegedly rented identification documents for $800 to get a job there.

The company has said its policy is to fire employees who can’t clear up discrepancies in their documentation.