Indictment in Tyson case leaves some illegal immigrants stranded

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Posted 8:18AM on Wednesday, January 23, 2002

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - While six former Tyson Foods Inc. managers indicted in an immigrant smuggling case have been preparing for their first federal court hearing Thursday, some immigrants stranded with fraudulent IDs have been running for cover. Matthew Baez, who works with immigrants through Esperanza del Barrio, a 4-year-old social services group, said he has been helping some Hispanics lured to Tennessee by promises of $8-an-hour "dream jobs." Baez described the affected Hispanics as "scared. They realize they have been part of a fraud." "They are not going back home," he said. "They are forced to look for other means of survival." Baez said for some of them that has meant traveling to search for "field work" in Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida. "They know that they are here illegally," he said. Federal prosecutors in a Dec. 11 sealed indictment accused Tyson and six former managers, including a vice president, of conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants to work at company plants in Tennessee, Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia. A hearing on those charges is set Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Bill Carter. The indictment said a Tyson manager told an undercover agent the company would pay $200 for each "illegal Mexican alien delivered..." The company aided the immigrants by obtaining false documents so they could work at Tyson plants "under the false pretense of being legally employable," according to the indictment. Robert Hash, vice president of the company's retail fresh division, and Gerald Lankford, former human resources manager of the retail fresh division, are charged, as are three former managers at the Shelbyville, plant: Truley Ponder, Spencer Mabe and Jimmy Rowland. Keith Snyder, complex manager at the Tyson plant in Noel, Mo., is also indicted. Snyder is a former night shift supervisor at Shelbyville, according to the indictment. Prosecutors have said a conviction on a charge of importing illegal immigrants for commercial advantage can carry a five-year mandatory minimum sentence, with no chance of parole. Tyson spokesman Ed Nicholson said he was unsure if the indicted former managers would attend the Thursday hearing or if they would be represented by their attorneys. Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson, with 120,000 employees, is the nation's largest poultry processing company. Since the indictments were unsealed, executives of the company have accused federal prosecutors of "improper racial stereotyping." They also contend the government's case involves a "few managers who were acting outside of company policy." A Tyson executive also said the indictment followed the company's refusal to pay the government a $100 million penalty. Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra has described the company officials' remarks as "rubbish." Baez said some illegal immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala who say they were recruited to work at Tyson's plant in Shelbyville have contacted him for help. He said "dozens" of immigrants were not aware until the Tyson indictments were announced in December that they were holding bogus Social Security cards and other documents. "A lot of them that I have spoken to had no clue that was a scam or illegal," Baez said. "They were told these documents were for employment at Tyson and not to show them anywhere else." Les Klinefelter, officer in charge of the Immigration and Naturalization Office in Memphis, said he doesn't doubt that some Hispanic workers with falsified credentials have been stranded by the Tyson case. "If they come to us they are going to be arrested ... set up for removal proceedings," he said. "Unless they might have a claim to permanent resident status we don't have any other choice." Klinefelter said it is a "bad situation, but at the same time they are in violation of the law." Amador Anchondo-Rascon, a former employee at Tyson's Shelbyville plant, pleaded guilty in the case as part of a sentencing deal with prosecutors. Anchondo-Rascon, 43, has been meeting privately with federal agents and is prepared to testify at any Tyson trial. Anchondo-Rascon told a federal judge that he smuggled illegal immigrants into the United States to work for Tyson and provided them with fraudulent identification.