During yesterday’s 9 a.m. shift change, roughly 100 federal immigration agents raided a House of Raeford Farms poultry plant outside Greenville, N.C. S.C., arresting more than 300 workers suspected of being illegal immigrants. The raid was the result of a 10-month federal investigation into the plant.
The Charlotte Observer, which has previously profiled numerous safety violations at House of Raeford Farms, describes the scene of the arrests:
Buses carrying federal agents pulled up at the plant shortly before the raid, and a mechanic who saw them notified other workers by radio, according to a former supervisor.
Company officials did nothing to impede ICE agents, McDonald said. When agents arrived, they ordered all workers at the plant to show identification.
Panicked workers called family members from plant bathrooms, relatives said.
Plant janitor Herbert Rooker, 54, said he saw screaming workers run through the halls after agents arrived.
‘I saw tears falling out of some of their eyes,” he said. ‘I realized what was going on then.”
UPDATE: The dateline has been corrected from Greenville, N.C. to Greenville, S.C.
