ICE Raids in Iowa Continue

The Associated Press reports:

Fifty-one workers were arrested during an immigration raid at six DeCoster egg farms in Wright County, where agents have conducted several other raids in recent years, federal officials said Thursday.

The workers, most of them from Mexico, have been transported to various detention facilities in Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and elsewhere, said Tim Counts, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A judge will decide their fate at deportation hearings in Omaha, Neb., Counts said.

Federal agents conducted the 2 1/2-hour raid Wednesday. Some of the workers, including some juveniles and parents, were released and told to appear for their scheduled hearings, Counts said.

Austin “Jack” DeCoster, the founder of DeCoster Farms, has previously been investigated by ICE for hiring illegal immigrants. Agents have raided his farms at least four times since 2001, the last one in June 2006 when about three dozen workers were detained. Click here for the whole story.

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