Ag companies sued for alleged RICO violations

BOISE – Four major agricultural companies and a nonprofit organization were sued Wednesday by Canyon County commissioners, who accuse them of conspiring to hire and harbor illegal immigrants.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court contends the four companies – Syngenta Seeds, Sorrento Lactalis, Swift Beef Co. and Harris Moran Seed Co. – and the nonprofit Idaho Migrant Council have violated the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which was designed to target the mafia.

Canyon County in southwestern Idaho alleges the businesses are hurting the county by taking part in an “illegal immigrant hiring scheme,” and that the undocumented workers use county resources such as indigent medical care, jails and schools.

The lawsuit marks the first time a government entity has used RICO to demand damages from businesses for the costs of allegedly illegal employees, say legal experts including Notre Dame law Professor G. Robert Blakey, one of the authors of the federal law. If the county wins, the payoff could be huge – the federal anti-racketeering act allows damaged parties to collect triple damages.

“Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. It has cost Canyon County millions of dollars, and we expect to recover it,” said Howard Foster, an attorney with the Chicago firm of Johnson & Bell who is representing the county. “I believe Canyon County will open the doors for other municipalities across the country to follow suit.”

The four companies, which together employ hundreds of workers in Canyon County, are accused of knowingly hiring hundreds of illegal workers, partly through agreements with worker recruiting companies.

Jim Herlihy, a spokesman for parent company Swift & Co., said his company strictly follows federal hiring guidelines. Swift & Co. runs a meat processing plant in Canyon County.

“We are very, very confident that our hiring practices are appropriate,” Herlihy said.

David Chambers, the vice president and general counsel for Sorrento Lactalis, said any allegations of a conspiracy to hire illegal immigrants are bunk.

“I can categorically deny that anything remotely like that is happening at my company,” Chambers said.

The Idaho Migrant Council, meanwhile, is accused of harboring illegal immigrants by joining with the Caldwell Housing Authority to rent undocumented workers housing units in Farmway Village, a housing complex.

That’s simply not true, said Albert Pacheco, the council’s executive director.

“We have no association with Farmway Village. We don’t manage it. In fact, I think it’s a city entity,” Pacheco said. “The only thing that we have at Farmway is that we run a Head Start program there, and we rent space to do that.”

The lawsuit was spearheaded by Canyon County Commissioner Robert Vasquez, who is campaigning for U.S. Congress. A grandson of Mexican immigrants, Vasquez has made headlines taking on illegal immigration from south of the border.