A Federal Grand Jury in Chattanooga has returned indictments against Tyson Foods, Inc., and six of its managerial personnel on charges involving illegal aliens.

Charged with conspiracy to violate, and violation of, various immigration laws prohibiting the importation and transportation of illegal aliens, and the use of fraudulent identification documents in the hiring of those illegal aliens are:

Tyson Foods, Inc., headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas

Robert Hash, a Vice-President at headquarters over the Retail Fresh Division

Gerald Lankford, former Human Resources Manager in the Retail Fresh Division

Keith Snyder, Complex Manager at the Tyson Plant in Noel, Missouri

Truley Ponder, former Complex Manager at the Tyson Plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee

Spencer Mabe, former Plant Manager at the Tyson Plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee

Jimmy Rowland, former Complex Personnel Manager at the Tyson Plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee

Tyson Foods is currently on criminal probation as a result of the corporation pleading guilty to bribery of former Secretary of Agriculture Espy, a felony, on December 29, 1997, a prosecution mounted by Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz, in federal court in Washington, D.C.

All defendants are charged in 36 counts of the 57-page federal indictment returned in Chattanooga on December 11. Tyson Foods and the six managers are accused in the indictment of conspiring to cause the importation and transportation of illegal alien workers from the Southern border of the United States to work at Tyson plants throughout the United States. The indictment charges that the defendants at Tyson Foods cultivated a "corporate culture in which the hiring of illegal alien workers . . . was condoned by Tyson management because it was more important for Tyson to meet its production goals and to cut its costs to maximize Tyson profits than for the defendants to comply with the immigration and other laws of the United States." According to the indictment, the defendants requested the delivery of illegal aliens to work at Tyson plants and aided and abetted them in obtaining false documents so that they could work at Tyson poultry processing plants "under the false pretense of being legally employable."

Tyson Foods and the six managerial defendants are further charged with conspiracy to obstruct the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in the enforcement of immigration laws, along with numerous substantive violations of those laws associated with the undercover deliveries of illegal aliens to various Tyson chicken processing plants. Notably, the charges of importing illegal aliens into the United States for commercial advantage implicate a statutorily imposed five-year mandatory minimum sentence, without the opportunity for probation or parole. In addition, the indictment seeks forfeiture of the financial gain realized by Tyson Foods and its managers as a result of the violations charged.

The United States Attorney's office praised the two-and-one-half-year undercover investigation conducted by the INS which provided the basis for the charges contained in the indictment. The investigation of the case was carried out by a task force composed of INS agents from around the country under the supervision of Al Garcia, Supervisory Special Agent, Task Force Coordinator, U.S. Border Patrol, San Angelo, Texas; and Tina Tucker, Supervisory Special Agent, Asset Forfeiture Coordinator, Dallas, Texas. The United States Attorney's office expressed appreciation to Robert Wallis, Regional Director, Central Region, INS, Dallas, Texas; James Cole, Associate Regional Director, Central Region, INS; Paul M. Berg, Chief Patrol Agent, U.S. Border Patrol, Del Rio, Texas; Anne M. Estrada, District Director, INS, Dallas, Texas; and J. Scott Blackman, Regional Director, Eastern Region, INS, Burlington, Vermont.

The Task Force also included agents of the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and local law enforcement in the Shelbyville, Tennessee area.

According to the United States Attorney's office, "This prosecution signals a new approach to enforcing our immigration laws through targeting the corporations and their executives who recruit and exploit illegal alien labor. We believe that this approach affords a strong deterrent to violation of the immigration laws of this country."

The cases arising out of the nationwide investigation of Tyson Foods' hiring practices are being prosecuted by several Assistant United States Attorneys around the country, who have served on the task force under the coordination of the lead prosecutor, Assistant United States John P. MacCoon, Chattanooga, Tennessee, who may be contacted for further public information at (423)752-5140. Trial Attorney Stephanie Thacker of the Criminal Division, Department of Justice, Child Exploitation Section, serves as co-counsel, along with Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew T. Morris and Tammy Owens Combs of the United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Tennessee.