The Baltimore Sun online is reporting that House of Raeford Farms, which is located in North Carolina, has been fined $1.5 million and must change its hiring practices as part of an agreement that “will allow a subsidiary to avoid prosecution on federal immigration charges.”
The settlement is an agreement between federal prosecutors and company officers and was signed “hours before the case was set for trial Tuesday [.]” The settlement essentially gives House of Raeford subsidiary Columbia Farms the ability to keep its record clean, and ends a legal battle “that could have cost the company millions of dollars in federal poultry contracts,” according to the Baltimore Sun story.
The Greenville, SC plant was raided last year and charged with intentionally hiring illegal immigrants. “Under the agreement, the government will dismiss charges against the company if it improves its hiring practices over the next two years and submits to federal monitoring at its eight plants in the Carolinas and Louisiana.” The agreement apparently accomplishes the goal of Walt Wilkins, US Attorney for South Carolina, which was to make the company a ‘“responsible corporate citizen.”’
According to the Baltimore Sun, under the terms of the deal the company must do the following to avoid future prosecution: 1) take part in federal programs that check workers’ documents and Social Security numbers against federal databases, 2) report evidence of immigration violations to the federal government, 3) “[u]se an outside auditor to help ensure those hired provide proper documents [,]” and 4) regularly train employees to better identify fraudulent documents and “comply with federal law.”
Despite the $1.5 million dollar fine for violating federal immigration laws, the company has received roughly $6.7 million in federal contracts, including close to $1 million in federal stimulus money “to supply turkey for school lunches and low-income people.” According to US Department of Agriculture spokesman Billy Cox, department attorneys will have to determine whether the company can still receive future contracts.
In 2008 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided the Greenville, SC plant. The ICE officials arrested 300 workers. “At the time, authorities said, 777 of the plant’s 825 workers had apparently submitted false documents.” House of Raeford is one of the largest chicken and turkey producers in the nation with eight processing plants throughout the Southeast, roughly 6,000 employees, and almost $600 million in annual sales.
To read the Baltimore Sun article online click here.
Posted: 11/04/09
Search This Blog
Content Areas
- Administrative Law (36)
- Agricultural Economics (184)
- Agritourism (30)
- Alternative Dispute Resolution (17)
- Animal Feeding Operations (136)
- Animal Identification (26)
- Animal Law (39)
- Animal Welfare (158)
- Announcement (259)
- Antitrust (1)
- Aquaculture (42)
- Bankruptcy (15)
- Biosecurity (32)
- Biotechnology (132)
- Blogs (18)
- Business Organizations (1)
- Checkoff Programs (11)
- Clean Air Act (5)
- Clean Water Act (113)
- Climate Change (147)
- Commercial Transactions (24)
- Commodity Programs (94)
- Congress (310)
- Conservation Programs (77)
- Cooperatives (16)
- Corporate Farming Laws (11)
- Country of Origin Labeling (43)
- Crop Insurance (92)
- Disaster Assistance Programs (17)
- Drought (24)
- Endangered Species Act (11)
- Environmental Law (268)
- EPA (139)
- Estate Planning and Taxation (28)
- Farm Bill (202)
- FDA (97)
- Finance and Credit (76)
- Food Labeling (176)
- Food Law (162)
- Food Safety (373)
- Food Security (18)
- Forestry (26)
- GIPSA (12)
- Hemp (11)
- House Agriculture Committee (17)
- Immigration (10)
- International Law and Organizations (175)
- International Trade (234)
- Labor (57)
- Landowner Liability (38)
- Leases (13)
- Local Food Systems (88)
- Marketing Orders (18)
- NALC Resource (20)
- NASDA (2)
- National Organic Program (42)
- Nutrition Programs (118)
- Packers and Stockyards Act (30)
- Perishable Agricultural Commodities (27)
- Pesticides (70)
- Production Contracts (19)
- Renewable Energy (185)
- Research (16)
- Right to Farm (13)
- Rural Development (111)
- Secured Transactions (12)
- Senate Ag Committee (20)
- Specialty Crops (30)
- Sustainable Agriculture (106)
- Urbanization and Agriculture (46)
- USDA (600)
- USDA HWFRCP (8)
- Water Law (136)
Related Blogs
- AgMag by the EWG
- Agricultural Law - The official blog of the AALS section on agricultural law
- AgWired
- Animal ID Systems
- Arkansas Electric Energy Law Blog
- Beginning Farmers
- Blog for Rural America
- Blogiculture
- Corn Commentary
- Dairy Cast
- DTN Ag Policy Blog
- DTN's Minding Ag’s Business
- eXtension's Blog
- Farm Aid
- Farm Future's D.C. Dialogue by Jacqui Fatka
- Farm Future's This Business of Farming Blog by Mike Wilson
- Farmer-Veteran Coalition
- FarmersReport.com
- FarmPolicy.com
- Food-Label-Compliance.com
- InfoFarm: The National Ag Library's Blog
- Iowa Farmers Union
- Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture & Natural Resource Law's Blog
- Marketmaker's
- Marler Blog
- Nebraska Corn Kernels
- Obama Foodorama
- Ohio Agricultural Law Blog
- Oklahoma Agriculture Blog
- Rincker Law's Agriculture Blog
- Southeast AgNET
- The Farm Gate
- The Rural Blog
- The Westerner
- U.S. Food Policy
- Washington View
- What to Eat