Tyson relieved by court decision

Leslie Ruth
Adelante staff writer

After deliberating for about five hours, a federal jury acquitted Tyson Foods on March 26 on charges that the company conspired to smuggle illegal immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries to work in its poultry factories. The jury also acquitted three Tyson Food managers who were charged with bringing in illegal immigrants.
The case against Tyson Foods was the first time that the federal government had brought charges of this kind against a company as large as Tyson.
Mira Mdivani, a lawyer in Kansas City who deals with issues of immigration, said the case against Tyson Foods could have set an example in governmental efforts to crack down on the hiring of illegal immigrants. Many plants hire immigrants to work in low-paying food processing jobs with high turnover rates.
“I think at this point, many companies are breathing a little easier than, say, two weeks ago,” Mdivani said. “On one hand, [the verdict] may encourage them to continue, and not worry about improving the legal status on their workers. On the other hand, someone might say, ‘Tyson’s been worrying about this, has lost one manager to suicide [and] is worrying about legal defense fees.’”
Although the company was acquitted of charges, six employees pleaded guilty to bringing in undocumented workers and helping them get fake identification documents. Jimmy Rowland, one of these employees, committed suicide last April. The other two were fired.
In a statement following the verdict, Greg Lee, Tyson chief administrative officer, said while he was pleased with the jury’s decision, “it’s unfortunate that Tyson Foods and our team members were needlessly subjected to this ordeal.
“As acknowledged by the lead INS agent during the trial, the government’s concerns easily could have been addressed with a simple phone call to the company,” Lee said. “This would have spared taxpayers the expense of a multi-million dollar undercover investigation against a company that had always been willing to cooperate .”