ICE Chicken Processing Plant Raid Yields 300 Suspected Illegal Immigrants

Greenville, SC (AHN) - Immigration agents swooped down on a chicken processing plant in Greenville, South Carolina on suspicion it is employing illegal immigrants and held 300 workers for questioning on Tuesday.

The 8:50 a.m. raid by 450 officers was prompted by dubious immigration records of 775 of 825 workers at the House of Raeford's Columbia Farms plant and earlier reports that the firm's managers know the workers illegally entered the U.S.

The raid was the biggest conducted in the Carolinas, Ken Smith, special agent-in-charge of the Atlanta Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations office, told Greenvilleonline.com.

The agents have cleared and released 58 of the workers but they will be monitored under a humanitarian detention program.