Pilgrim's Pride reportedly laying off illegal workers

Last month, the owners of La Lengua, a Lufkin-based Spanish newspaper, knew their readers had some serious concerns about what would happen to their jobs after a proposed federal "guest worker" bill stalled in Congress, blocking the path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and migrant workers.

Ino Reyes and his brother, Roy, asked their small staff to get the answers to those questions from some of the businesses that employ mostly Hispanic workers, but kept hitting a dead end.

Christy Wooten/The Daily Sentinel (enlarge photo) La Lengua newspaper says Pilgrim's Pride on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Nacogdoches is laying off any undocumented workers who can't provide valid Social Security information.

What they discovered was that because there was little chance the guest worker program would be resurrected, industries across the nation were going to be forced to make changes.

"I think they knew that once the immigration reform bill was shot down, there was no hope for anything — amnesty or temporary permits," Reyes said. "They knew that if that bill didn't pass, the government was going to start coming down on industry."

What they didn't know was the effect it would have here in East Texas.

La Lengua readers began calling the paper, saying that the Pilgrim's Pride facility in Nacogdoches was going to lay off any employees who could not show a legal Social Security number.

"If they can't verify the Social Security number, they have to find another job," Hispanic community activist Gabriella Zavalla said. "Some of them, they are giving three days notice, and others they are giving eight days notice, but it's affecting a lot of people. One day in the morning (the Nacogdoches plant) laid off 40 people, then in the afternoon they let another 20 people go. Then one day it was about 100 people."

La Lengua contacted Pilgrim's Pride for confirmation, but company officials said they would not comment on personnel matters.

Officials with the Nacogdoches Economic Development Corporation said they hadn't heard of any layoffs at Pilgrim's Pride, and were told when they talked to human resources officials two weeks ago that citizenship was not going to be an issue.

It was a big issue, however, for the workers who received official letters.

Lufkin ISD Superintendant Roy Knight confirmed that it is a big issue for a many of those who have been calling his office to try to help.

"I've had calls from the Hispanic community asking how we might provide for the needs of children of laid-off employees," Knight said.

Reyes said those whom his reporters have interviewed do not fault Pilgrim's Pride, because most of them realize that cracking down on undocumented workers is a hardship on the company as well, and that the company wouldn't be doing it if they didn't feel they had to do so.

"This goes way beyond the company here," Reyes said. "I guarantee you that the production managers don't want this to happen. The end result is they are going to lose a big part of their labor force, and it's going to be the consumer who is going to pay the price. You can say what you want about them, but those guys work. They may be here illegally, but they will work two shifts or three shifts or four shifts or whatever you want them to do, as long as they have a job. If they (the company) have to get rid of them, they will have to hire new people and pay overtime, and that's going to cost us a lot more in the long run."

Tamar Jacoby, an immigration expert with the conservative Manhattan Institute in New York, said she wasn't surprised that companies are taking preventive action regarding immigrant workers.

Jacoby consulted with key Republicans on the immigration debate earlier this year and helped create business coalitions in several states, including Texas, that lobbied for an immigration overhaul that would have given illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and created a guest worker program. Pilgrim's Pride belongs to the Texas coalition, Texas Employers for Immigration Reform.

"Any business owner that's paying attention to what's going on now, knows that workplace enforcement is what's coming down the track," she said.

Companies are stuck between a rock and a hard place, when it comes to hiring immigrants, because it's hard to tell if documentation is legitimate, and they could be sued for discrimination if they demand proof of legal status, she said.

Jacoby also said the Texas economy could be hurt severely by "draconian" enforcement measures that will leave companies without hundreds of thousands of employees.

But lawyers are advising their clients who employ Hispanic workers to perform voluntary audits to discover if there are any internal issues they can address before the government gets involved.

Wayne Haglund, a Lufkin attorney, said if the federal government does get involved, officials are going to shift the focus from the employees to the employers who hired them.

Haglund said he had not specifically seen any of the letters issued to Pilgrim's Pride workers, but he said if he were to guess, it would go something like this:

"There's some issue or question about information you've provided. Please provide information that will clarify."

According to Haglund, companies have services where employers can check Social Security names against names and birth dates, and what employers are finding is that oftentimes, the Social Security numbers don't match up to names, age or date of birth.

"The government has redefined what is 'constructive knowledge' to prosecute employers," Haglund said. "If records were available to you, and you could have known that this person was not authorized to work, you are going to be penalized ... It's very harsh, but it is the law."

Haglund said he has looked at the law, and in his opinion, the state of Texas will most likely suffer, as a result of it.

"It's really hard for workers and for employers," he said. "I don't know that there are any winners, at all."

Reyes said the entire issue was fueled by what he called "racial reform," and it will have precisely the effect that was intended.

"They knew what they were doing," he said. "That's the only way to really stop illegal immigration. You go after the companies. If there are no jobs, then the people won't be here."

But Reyes said he thinks a lot of undocumented workers will stay around East Texas — at least at first.

"If they can't work at Pilgrim's Pride, many of them will find jobs elsewhere," he said. "You still don't need documentation for day labor."

But Reyes said it's likely that families won't be able to make it on what day labor or other work will pay. And that's what La Lengua is trying to address.

"We didn't do this story just for news," he said. "We were trying to help folks. We wanted to get the word out there so people could get involved and churches could get organized."

So far, Reyes said, it appears to be working.

"It's on the radio. It's on the street," he said. "Now, we'll see if anyone has any ideas how to help the families or find a way to stop it, but I'm afraid this is going to be a big problem for our region."