The House of Representatives' Committee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law is hearing testimony right now on misconduct by ICE -- the border security agency whose sweeps through meatpacking plants last year ended up infringing the rights of thousands of legal, hardworking American citizens.
One of the people who testified before the committee was UFCW member Mike Graves (pictured), who said this last year about the ICE raids:
When I tried to report to the cafeteria during the raid, ICE agents accused me of trying to run away. They held me in handcuffs. I'm a U.S. Citizen, born in Iowa. My parents live in Mississippi. My government treated me like a criminal and I didn’t do anything wrong. I knew our rights were being violated. What they're doing in these raids is illegal.
A few minutes ago, Graves repeated that message before the assembled Members of Congress:
In all 21 years on the job, there is one day I will never forget. On December 12, 2006, hundreds of heavily armed ICE agents stormed six meat packing plants across America’s heartland. The Marshalltown plant where I work was one of those targeted and attacked.
And it did feel like an attack. I will never forget that day. Because it was on that cold December day, that I had my civil rights violated and my faith in my country shaken.
Read Mike Graves' full testimony from the hearing (PDF).
And here's some video from today of Mike Graves talking about his experience with ICE:
UPDATE (5:55PM): Here's the press release from UFCW.