Workers held in poultry plant raid go before immigration officials today
By E. Richard Walton, STAFF WRITER
November 12, 2008
The Greenville News
The first group of 80 to 100 undocumented workers are headed to a federal office in Greer today after they were detained in a raid at a Greenville poultry plant a month ago by immigration officials, a spokeswoman said.
Adela Mendoza of the Alliance for Collaboration with the Hispanic Community, a volunteer group, said six lawyers are expected to represent the workers "pro bono." Each lawyer will handle between 10 to 15 workers, she said.
The workers will discuss their cases with agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Greer, lawyers said.
Most of the 100 workers who were released since the raid are women and "primary care givers" for kids or other relatives, ICE officials say.
ICE said they were released for "humanitarian" reasons. All are required to wear monitors on their ankles so ICE can keep track of their whereabouts.
The meetings are expected to last through Nov. 19, Mendoza said.
"We don’t know if the meetings are going to take 5 minutes or 25 minutes," she said.
Mendoza said the workers being represented by volunteer attorney Amy Shelley will have their cases reviewed first.
Tricia Ravenhorst is another immigration lawyer who has helped collect much of the data on the workers.
Mendoza said the six lawyers representing the workers all speak Spanish. The lawyers spoke to the workers over the weekend in preparation for the meetings with ICE.
She said workers would have their cases heard in immigration court in Atlanta.
Lawyers advise ACCH that the workers may not have much legal ground to remain in the United States.
"Pretty much everybody is going to be deported," Mendoza said. Some workers have been in this country for a decade or more, she said.
What complicates the situation is that 80 or more of the women have children who were born in the United States, making them U.S. citizens, she said.
"Some have two or three U.S. citizen children," Mendoza said.
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20081112/NEWS01/81112019/1004/NEWS01
