Whereabouts of Arrested Swift Workers Revealed

A judge closed a lawsuit against the U.S. government Monday after federal officials disclosed the whereabouts and status of 262 workers arrested in an immigration raid at a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo.

Attorneys for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which filed the suit, said it shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit to get the information. The lawsuit alleged the government had violated the workers’ constitutional right to due process.

The government released the information to the union last week under orders from U.S. District Judge John Kane. He terminated the lawsuit after both sides agreed that all the arrested workers had been accounted for and given a chance to seek bond.

The people arrested in Greeley were among 1,297 workers at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in six states who were taken into custody on Dec. 12, most on illegal immigration charges. The union lawsuit did not cover workers in the other states. Click here.

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