Following raids of Mississippi poultry plants by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, the National Chicken Council wrote a letter to President Donald Trump, asking him to help the poultry industry to better prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants.
On August 7, ICE conducted raids at Peco Foods poultry plants in Canton, Bay Springs and Sebastopol; the Koch Foods poultry plant in Morton, grocery distributor MP Foods in Pelahatchie and shipping company PH Food in Morton. Those raids resulted in the detainment of 680 people.
The following day, NCC wrote a letter to Trump, as well as leaders from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, asking the government to help the poultry companies help themselves. The letter was signed by NCC President Mike Brown.
“We do wish to express serious concern about the ability of employers to ensure that they do not inadvertently hire an individual who is not eligible for employment,” the letter read. “The U.S. chicken industry uses every tool available to verify the identity and legal immigration status of all prospective employees. Unfortunately, the government does not provide employers with a reliable verification method to prevent identity fraud and document falsification and confirm with confidence that new hires are legally authorized to work in the United States.”
Presently, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) maintains three different categoris of documents that prospective employees must submit before being verified as eligible for employment in the U.S. List A documents prove both identity and employment authorization, while List B documents prove only identity and List C documents prove only employment authorization, NCC explained.
But current law provides applicants the choice of submitting one document from List A or one document each from Lists B and C. NCC expressed concern that many potential employees opt to provide list B and C documents, which are easily falsified as people can earn wages on the same Social Security number (SSN) or by using the SSN of a person that is deceased.
NCC further wrote that the U.S. Social Security Administration provides “little cooperation or resources to employers trying to combat identity fraud.”
“It is the responsibility of employers to help ensure that the law is followed but it is the obligation of the government – not U.S. employers – to provide a secure worker verification system,” NCC wrote.
Also receiving copies of the letter were Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
