Editorial: A case of mistreatment?

Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007 | 7:46 a.m.

A union representing workers at six meatpacking companies that federal immigration officials raided late last year is suing the government, saying that agents detained and roughly handled employees who were not considered suspects.

A story by the Associated Press on Thursday says that the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union's lawsuit, which was filed in Texas on Wednesday, seeks an unspecified amount of damages. It also asks that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stop conducting raids that the union considers to be illegal.

ICE agents conducted raids in December at six plants operated by Swift & Co. as part of an identity theft investigation. Federal officials have said they suspected that workers who are in the United States illegally had obtained fake identities to get jobs at the plants.

Federal officials say they arrested 1,297 workers in the December raids, most of whom were charged with being in the country illegally. Of those, 649 had been deported by March, the AP reports. Those arrested also included 274 workers who were charged with identity theft or other violations unrelated to immigration.

Union officials say, however, that 12,000 workers were detained over the course of the raids - most of whom were never charged with anything - and some were handcuffed and denied access to telephones, lawyers, their families and even the bathroom.

ICE officials told the AP that no detained workers were denied access to telephones. It will be up to the court to decide who is telling the truth.

One can only imagine the confusion and mayhem that erupts as federal agents burst into a workplace with hundreds or thousands of employees. It is understandable that the agents would need to maintain some form of control to make certain that no one was injured and to ensure that they detained the suspects for whom they were looking.

Still, that is no excuse for mistreating or detaining workers whose only act was showing up for work on the day that a raid was conducted.