‘Operation Wagon Train’

December 15, 2006

For the middle of December, it’s been a surprisingly busy news week, but I think “Operation Wagon Train” has been seriously underreported. Shakespeare’s Sister emailed me about this yesterday and she’s right; this new Homeland Security crackdown is unwarranted, excessive, and frankly, kind of scary.

Federal agents targeting illegal immigrants raided meatpacking plants in six states yesterday, arresting hundreds of workers on the uncommon charge of identity theft and shutting down the world’s second-largest meat processing company for much of the day.
About 1,000 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with search warrants entered plants owned by Swift & Co., of Greeley, Colo., charging that “large numbers” of workers illegally assumed the identities of U.S. citizens or legal residents by using their Social Security numbers to get work, ICE officials said.

Company and union officials said agents, some dressed in riot gear, locked down six beef- and pork-processing plants early in the morning, segregating workers into groups of citizens and non-citizens after questioning. Some illegal workers were bused to detention facilities hours away, labor officials said.

The operation, dubbed “Operation Wagon Train,” was characterized as combating identity theft, not routine immigration violations. Julie Myers, assistant secretary of homeland security for ICE, said that “the signal we’re intending to send here is, ‘We’re serious about work site enforcement, and those individuals who steal identities of U.S. citizens will not escape action from us.'”

It turns out, DHS had identified 170 identity-fraud suspects to apprehend, but chose to round up thousands of additional workers, just in case some of them were involved as well.

First, identity theft turned out to be a red herring. Second, in the process of executing this little adventure, DHS lost all sense of perspective. And third, no one seems to understand exactly why Operation Wagon Train was launched in the first place.

In one of the crackdowns, for example, federal agents identified suspects based on skin color, and ended up apprehending U.S. citizens who had done nothing wrong. In other instances, parents wrapped up in the raids were separated from their children, even infants.

Keep in mind, we’re talking about the single-largest worksite-enforcement operation in the history of the United States. All because of alleged identity theft? Not exactly.

According to DHS’ own tally, only 65 of the 1,282 arrests were for criminal violations, including identity-theft related crimes. That means that over 1,200 of the people arrested had no connection to any identity theft rings, and were guilty only of run-of-the-mill immigration violations. That didn’t temper the agency’s rhetoric. […]

“[H]undreds of these illegal aliens may have illegally assumed the identities of U.S. citizens,” the press release goes on the explain, “and improperly used their Social Security numbers and other identity documents in order to gain employment at Swift facilities.” Hundreds? A couple dozen, maybe.

All of this leads to a fairly obvious, but hard to answer, question: what was the point of launching Operation Wagon Train?

DHS arrested workers who came from stable, working-class neighborhoods. Their kids were enrolled in schools. The communities are reported to be ripped apart by the raids; in some, the local authorities refused to help the feds. In some cases state authorities intervened to demand DHS behave better.

What’s the monetary cost of mounting the biggest raid on immigrants in U.S. history? What’s going to be the cost to the communities affected? What is the cost that will be borne by state and local governments?

And most importantly, who is served by raids that by any measure failed to achieve their stated goal, and at such great expense?

The election season is over, it’s approaching the holiday season, and there’s no current legislation (or even negations to write legislation) on the table.

So what on earth is going on here? A massive, multi-state raid to nab a few dozen identity thieves? Huh?

I often find Bush administration decision making mysterious, but this is just insane.

Hispanics were switching to Dems in large numbers at the time of the election. This will only drive more to the Dems, and in a manner that will cement those folks as Dems. This type of action will long be remembered by that community. If Bush keeps this up, the Dems will be the beneficiaries in 2008. Big time.

  • Digby has an interesting take on the this here. He thinks this may be an attempt to make people who otherwise are not in anyway hurt by illegal immigration to begin thinking, falsely, that they may be victims of identity theft perpetrated by the illegals.

  • BTW, when I saw your headline “Operation Wagon Train” I thought it referred to BushCo circling the wagons on Iraq.

  • Julie Meyers, who led this effort, has a history with the Bush administration:

    Myers also was an associate under independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr for about 16 months and has most recently served as a special assistant to President Bush handling personnel issues.

    Her uncle is Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the departing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She married Chertoff’s current chief of staff, John F. Wood, on Saturday.

    Her nomination for her current post was somewhat controversial. Anyway, she’s pretty much a made political operative in the administration. So whatever was the thinking behind this, it was certainly political, and approved at the highest levels.

  • Sixty-five out of 1,282? What’s that, five, six percent?

    I bet if you had a thousand federal agents bust the Bush Administration and friends, you’d find a *MUCH* higher rate of criminal culpability.

  • Operation Wagon Train….odd choice of names, no?

    The wagon train symbolizes the manifest destiny attitude of ‘whitey’ as we moved West across the continent. As we went, we displaced Native Americans, annexed territory from Mexico, and generally brought a shitstorm of hurt to the people who were living West of the Mississippi prior to our march West.

    Since the Bush Administration prides itself on stagecraft I cannot imagine this is anything but a purposeful insult to injury slap in the face to Hispanics.

    Morons of the higest order.

  • As I mentioned elsewhere, it’s good to know that Baghdad is not the only place where hundreds of people can be kidnapped in broad daylight by gun toting men in government uniforms.

  • Another case of throwing red meat to the base, in this case the base will have to wait until a certified American finishes butchering it first. In a funny quirk of justice, though, red state ranchers, who normally flock to the Repubs, will find that mega processors like Swift and Tyson will unilaterally cut the price for cattle paid to the ranchers in response to having to pay more for legal labor, screwing the ranchers in the process.

    Could this all be the Republicans way of securing “protection money” to pay for the ’08 elections by shaking down industries that haven’t contributed their fair share to Repub coffers?

    Horatio nails the kicker: until punitive action is taken against the employers of illegals, employers will continue to employ illegals, at cheap wages of course. It’s another edition of simple solutions to complex problems. Nail the brown skinned people and treat all the white folks as if they are innocent victims of the brown horde.

    Funny someone mentioned Julie Myers wedding. Can anyone hazzard a guess as to how many illegals had a hand in making it happen, from cooking the meals to cleaning to making her wedding dress?

  • I still haven’t worked out a morally coherent stance on immigration that reflects my progressive values. Unfortunately it seems that Progressives haven’t even come up with a coherent way to have a discussion about it.

    A few conflicting points:
    Raiding workplaces to weed out (known) illegally employed immigrants=BAD

    Allowing (illegal) workers to be exploited by businesses in the form of lower wages and poor working conditions=BAD

    Outsourcing jobs to take advantage of lower costs=BAD
    Outsourcing jobs here in the US (by hiring illegals) to take advantage of lower costs=?

    The agriculture business is screaming at the top of their lungs for more Mexicans because they say they can’t get anyone to work for them. These capitalists apparently haven’t thought to raise their wages to a point that will attract labor.

    On the other hand, raised food costs are anathema to Progressives, as being one of the most regressive forms of wealth redistribution. Where does that leave Agricultural Subsidies to megafarmers?

    And if we don’t find a way to get illegal labor under control, aren’t we just aiding and abetting all those who exploit that labor market fearlessly, because they know they can threaten them with deportation?

  • Another point that hasn’t gotten any attention is that (here in Iowa anyway) the workers are being referred to as “detainees” and have not, as of today, been allowed access to attorneys, family members, or clergy. It makes me wonder, have these workers been designated as “enemy combatants” and thus deprived of all rights?

  • BTW, when I saw your headline “Operation Wagon Train” I thought it referred to BushCo circling the wagons on Iraq.
    Comment by rege

    🙂 I thought it was about a dog food comercial.

    Homeland Security has made me queasy since it’s beginning. I think we have the makings of a homegrown gestapo with this organization. And I think Illegal Immigration is like drugs, an artifical excuse for swat-team tactics. Tommy Chong is right in I Chong, 9/11 freed the fascist elements to realize their means and ends.

  • I noticed officials (local police) are pissed off too because they weren’t notified about the raids. I think it also disgusted a lot of people who might otherwise support strict immigration reform. Stop some guys who are crossing the border illegally? Fine. Grab people at random, including legal citizens and leave their kids without anyone to care for them? Nope.

    Also, what the fuck does Homeland Security have to do with this? Isn’t this an INS issue?

  • I will never understand Americans’ (both parties) unwillingness to apply basic social science knowledge to the “problem” of illegal immigration. It’s elementary demography that people enter this country illegally, as they always have, even before immigration laws, to get jobs. When the jobs aren’t available (as in all of the panics, depressions, recessions, etc. throughout our colonial and national history), would-be migrants don’t come here. When there’s a buck to be made, they do (“huddled masses, yearning to be rich … or at least better off”). In colonial times and well into the 19th century there were even years of net outflow of migrants.

    The only way to prevent people from coming here illegally is to turn off the attraction: punish those who offer jobs to illegals. Neither party is willing to do this since employers of illegals are often major campaign donors and government officials. Local economies depend on cheap, non-organizable labor. Increased patrols, fences, police harassment and the like won’t cut down the number of migrants arriving here. They only make the crossing more dangerous, as proved in the recent dramatic increases in death rates among Mexican illegals crossing at ever more dangerous locations. Police presence also makes going back more dangerous, so immigrants who used to come, make money and return to Mexico on a regular basis now stay here permanently.

    I have never met or read a politician who will face these simple facts plus recognizing that immigrants are exactly like the result of us. As a result I have little patience with the whole argument, which is almost always couched in emotional and racist terms.

  • On the other hand, raised food costs are anathema to Progressives, as being one of the most regressive forms of wealth redistribution.

    food stamps or other direct subsidies to consumers can easily mitigate a rise in food prices. And if we’re smart about those subsidies we can only provide them for unprocessed foodstuffs leading to more healthy diets. I’m not saying we make chips and processed foods illegal, just more expensive–you know, like cigarettes.

  • So—we send hundreds of thousands overseas to fight terrorism, so we don’t have to fight it here, and it turns out that the terrorists are already here. It’s just that on this side of the pond, we call them “the government….”

  • Ah yes, the Department of Homeland Insecurity. Aka the jackbooted thugs of the Bush Gestapo. Your tax dollars at work (it’s haaaaard work!)

    Everybody feel safer???

  • Also, what the fuck does Homeland Security have to do with this? Isn’t this an INS issue? — TAIO, @14

    Which is why it had to be presented as an identity-theft problem, not as an illegal immigration crack-down. Stealing an American’s identity would be something that a terrorist might want to do.

    zgirl, @12. I’m like you; of all the ramifications of this raid, the “detention”, without access to either family or law is what bothers me most of all.

    Not that I’m not bothered by some other aspects — the commando-type raids, the rounding up of people cattle-like, and shipping them off to who-knows-what-hell , the name of the “action” — it’s all too reminiscent of what happened to the Jews during WWII.

    Regarding the non-arrests of any employers at the Swift plants. Apparently, Swift had thought it had been compliant with the law as it stood. It had been sending the data on their workers to some immigration ‘puterized system which was supposed to do the checking for legitimacy, so they thought they were “covered”, at least on the surface.

    Which makes this case even more baffling — why *Swift*, of all people? One thing that’s occured to my suspicious and bitchy mind is that Swift is said to be “the second largest” meat processor. So, perhaps the largest or the third largest (whoever that might be) decided to clip the wings of the competition (either individually or in concert)? It’s not as if Homeland Security is famous for its incorruptible stance…

  • Usually it’s a matter of following the money. So Swift or its CEO may not have been playing ball.

    But another possibility in this case is that it’s to set up a political candidate for Iowa. One of the plants was in Iowa. Will one of the political candidates emerge a “hero” for their position on this? Stay tuned.

  • Look up Operation End Game, it is a DHS program involving both the construcion of detention facalities by FEMA, with the capacity to detain 300000 people, and the overall goal of deporting up to 11 million “removeable aliens” within the next six years. Make no mistake, this is the begginning of wholesale detaining and concentration of an entire ethnic group. In these raids they were seperating people by skin color, this is about racisim, or you would have heard of illegal Canadians in the same stories.

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