Mexico: Half detained in immigration raid are Mexicans

ASSOCIATED PRESS

9:44 p.m. December 13, 2006

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government said on Wednesday that about 600 of the 1,282 meatpacking employees detained in immigration raids in several U.S. states are Mexicans, and called on U.S. authorities to temporarily release mothers detained in the raids so they can care for their U.S.-born children.

U.S. federal agents arrested immigrants at Greeley, Colo.-based Swift & Co. meat processing plants in six states Tuesday, after a nearly yearlong investigation revealed that illegal immigrants and others may have stolen or bought the identities and Social Security numbers of U.S. citizens and residents in order to work there.

“The Mexican government is requesting the provisional release of Mexican mothers apprehended in yesterday's raid in the United States, so that they can care for their children born in that country,” the Foreign Relations Department said in a press statement.

In other cases – presumably those of mothers with Mexican-born children – the department said it was working, with the help of U.S. community groups, to ensure those children placed in the care of relatives, or “in isolated cases,” in the care of child welfare authorities.