Immigration Raid Targets Houston Tortilla Factory

An immigration raid on a Houston tortilla factory led to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detaining eleven undocumented workers. Federal agents detained nine women and two men working at the La Espiga de Oro (The Golden Spike) tortilleria in Houston’s Historic Heights neighborhood. The immigration raid followed close on the heels of other raids across the state, which led to the detention of more than two dozen undocumented immigrants with criminal records.

Details of the Immigration Raid

Greg Palmore, a spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, said that the immigration raid at La Espiga de Oro was part of a nationwide effort to root out illegal immigrants. The agency carried out two other immigration raids last month in Corsicana and Dallas. These raids helped agents catch 27 immigrants with criminal convictions. Mr. Palmore mentioned that the agency granted temporary legal employment status to seven of the employees while the serve as material witnesses in the continuing investigation.

Immigration Raid Agency Cites “Unsafe Conditions”

Mr. Palmore also stated that the object of these immigration raids is not always to find illegal immigrants and process them for deportation. Instead, he told reporters that some immigration raids, such as the one on La Espiga de Oro, focus on businesses that may employ illegal immigrants and subject them to unsafe working conditions. He said that many business that hire illegal immigrants often have “an egregious amount of unreported workplace injuries.”

Advocates Upset Over Immigration Raid

Hispanic advocacy groups complained that the immigration raid targeted honest, hard-working immigrants, rather than the population’s criminal element. Marta Ojeda, executive director of the Fe Y Justicia (Faith and Justice) Worker Center, told local reporters that “these people should not be a priority” in an immigration raid. She also referred to announcements by President Obama stating that ICE and other immigration agencies should focus on targeting criminals, instead of families, who enter the country illegally.

Houston Immigration Raid First Since 2008

The immigration raid on the tortilla factory is the first of its size in the city since 2008. Cesar Espinosa, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group FIEL Houston, told reporters about an immigration raid on a clothing company in Port Houston. The raid netted more than 160 workers, all of them illegal immigrants. Mr. Espinosa said that the tortilla factory raid was “definitely out of the norm.”

Sources: Houston Chronicle, Houston Press, KTRK-TV

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