Arrests made at Dairy operation in Veblon, SD

27 people were arrested at a dairy operation near Veblen in northeastern South Dakota, said Tim Counts, spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A three-month South Dakota Highway Patrol investigation led to the arrest of 14 people who are accused of being in the country illegally.

The other 13 people face identity theft charges.

The investigation began after an officer stopped a man in August who used suspicious identification, Counts said.

“He used an invalid social security number to register his vehicle, and others were using stolen social security numbers to register their vehicles,” he said.

ICE was assisting the Highway Patrol with the investigation when they found the 14 people in the country illegally, Counts said.

Company Issues Statement On Immigration Raid

More than two dozen people in northeastern South Dakota face identity theft and immigration charges. The Prairie Ridge Management says officials came to its dairy facility in Veblen to detain workers suspected of having incomplete or false documentation.

The South Dakota Highway Patrol says it arrested 13 people for ID theft and having false ID's and that US immigration officials arrested 14 others on immigration violations. They say the investigation began in August when a man who was pulled over showed suspicious documents with an invalid social security number.

Prairie Ridge management says the process went smoothly and it follows all state and federal laws for employee documentation.


nascargirl

You know, Rick Millner used to work at a large dairy at Milbank. Look up his residence history.

http://www.melissadata.com/cgi-bin/peoplefinder.asp

Are large dairies hurting our population?

In other threads we have talked about large feedlots displace family farms and create minimum wage jobs in lieu of family farm incomes.

Although in the last 10 years under Republican leadership bigger is better. Perhaps the end of these policies are ending.

Large feedlots hurt our small communities.

Grant County Economic Development Director George Smith spoke to
District Four SD House of Representative candidates about the problem
of population decline within the county. He addressed incumbents
Steve Street (D) arid Val Rausch (R) as well as challenger Jim
Gilkerson (R) at a political forum at Golden Living Center on October 18.
According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, Grant County has lost
1,231 residents since 1990. The population was 8,372 in 1990 and
estimated at 7,159 in 2007.
Smith said that the loss of population has affected our labor pool.
He noted that several industries in Milbank are finding it difficult
to hire all the personnel they need.

Here is a neat site for learning about Grant County statistics:

http://www.city-data.com/county/Grant_County-SD.html

Doesn't it seem like a large rural population leads to a large county population?

Does this mean there is a shift in labor for the area?

Do we now have a lower unemployment rate?

Is there a single source for us to know what employers need?

During our Horizon's meeting in Big Stone City last Tuesday some of the people were saying that they have families that would move back to this area in a heartbeat if the jobs were available. We have a great deal to offer people in this rural setting.

Perhaps the time is ripe for growth.

It does seem kind of funny that some people have trouble finding employees while some people have trouble finding jobs.

I have heard that turnover is higher in rather undesirable job positions such as the night shift.

Is it that there are no jobs or are they just the wrong type of job?...ie jobs that people generally do not want? Just curious

It has been awhile since I testified on this subject so some of my data may be slightly outdated. Studies indicated that when you replace a family farm making say, $250,000.00 per year and replace it with jobs that pay 8.00 an hour you have created the Russian system of farming called communal farming. The Russians found this to be a very inefficient way to farm and found that most of the workers were transient and uninterested in production.

There were some exceptions, but generally the Russians concluded during the Reagan era that the Russian farming practices were a failure.

Large corporate farms generally do not have a great future in this country but given the Republican trend of bigger is better was policy for the last eight years.

The issue in this area is "what policies will promote family farm practices that can meet the needs of the producers?"

The answer appears to be that when paid smaller sums by the hour that these are generally undiserable jobs but as the pay increases they become more palatable.

Five dairy workers were arrested here Friday morning on immigration charges, the second time in a month that the region has seen dairy employees detained.

Four employees of Lazy Lot Dairy were arrested for presenting false identification and illegal immigration charges. The fifth employee, a woman, was arrested after admitting that she is in the country illegally, said TimCounts, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to Hamlin County Sheriff Dan Mack, the investigation began when the suspects tried to register vehicles with false Social Security numbers.

The four face charges with presenting false identification and being in the country illegally, Mack said. Two of the suspects are married to each other, Counts said.

The arrests come less than one month after 28 people, 11 of them employees, were arrested at Veblen Dairy and other residences
in Veblen. Mack said the operations were similar. “It was a smaller scale than what (Veblen) was, but a similar situation,” he said.

David Howe, of Lazy Lot Dairy, said “There was license plate issues,” and declined further comment.

The state Department of Revenue, ICE, Hamlin County Sheriff ’s Office, state Highway Patrol, state Department of Game, Fish and Parks and state Division of Criminal Investigation participated in the arrests, Mack said.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those workers and their families...sad situation.

We should all humbly pray for those who have suffered from Corporate farming practices.

I remember just a few years ago spending hours lecturing on how to save family farms and spend each meeting in prayer for our family farmers who were lost. Century farms lost due to poor policies in Washington.

In testimony in St. Paul I testified to a banker who had lost his daughter to a car accident, a month later his wife to cancer and his bank 5 months later because of the farm crisis. He was a close Christian friend and we prayed more than one evening together.

There was statistical evidence to significant farm related suicide as well.

As we enter the new economic hardships we should openly pray for all who have suffered from very poor policies in Washington, St. Paul and Pierre.

Most importantly, we should pray for our decision makers so that they make better choices.

Thanks for your concerns and remember to pray for all who have suffered and those that will suffer in the immediate future.