Immigration agents are interviewing workers at Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant in downtown Chattanooga as part of a year-long criminal investigation, a spokeswoman for the federal agency said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa said she doesn’t know how many people ICE agents are interviewing, but that the event is a “worksite enforcement operation.”

In December, 21 employees of Pilgrim’s Pride were arrested at two plants in Texas and charged with ID fraud and immigration violations, according to news reports.

The Associated Press reported that immigration agents today raided a poultry plant in Arkansas as part of an ongoing criminal investigation involving the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant in Batesville. Agents also were serving arrest warrants in five other states including Georgia, authorities said. ICE agents also were serving arrest warrants in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, a spokesman said.

Ms. Zamarripa said those arrested or detained in Chattanooga were being taken to a warehouse.

People seeking information about the status of those detained call the ICE “friends and family line” at 866-341-3858. Information is available in Spanish and English.

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See tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press for full coverage.

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