I did a bit of Googling after reading this, because the story sounded familiar but dated. The results indicate that this happened last December. I found news reports from December 12, 2006 that ICE had raided six Swift & Co. plants in Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Iowa and Minnesota.

I'm confused about Mick's post, though, since most of it is italicized. I may be wrong, but this doesn't sound like Mick's Mudcat "voice" (i.e. writing style) to me. Mick, is this your account or did you copy-and-paste someone else's account? Where it says, "I was present", what does that mean? Doesn't sound like you were there during the raid. And why this 8-month delay?

By the way, in one of the articles from last December that I found, it says: "Federal immigration officials on Wednesday [Dec. 13, 2006] claimed that Swift & Co. allowed hundreds of illegal employees to avoid deportation by firing them before Tuesday's massive raid [Dec. 12]. But Swift disagreed, saying immigration officials gave permission to the meatpacking company to question employees, some of whom then quit when confronted about their documentation. The dispute came to a head Wednesday, one day after immigration raids at six Swift & Co. plants netted 1,282 suspects. Federal immigration officials claimed the meat processor fired the employees without their [ICE's] permission after Swift learned of the federal probe." (Reference: RockyMountainNews.com)