Latest news with #GaryRohwer
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Workplace raids demonstrate the vulnerability of the E-Verify system, experts say
Omaha, Nebraska — Gary Rohwer built his QuickSteak empire at a meat processing center in Omaha, Nebraska. But then, a tactical team of federal agents raided his facility on June 10, and more than 70 of his assembly line employees were arrested by Homeland Security Investigations. He showed CBS News an old company photo, disclosing that about half of the employees in that photo were swept up in the raid. "Oh my God, half of them," Rohwer said. "It makes me sad, it really does, because these guys made us successful." Rohwer said he put his faith in E-Verify — the federal system used by more than 1 million employers each year, and which is mandatory in 10 states and by most federal contractors — to confirm the employment eligibility of would-be hires. "We did everything right, but yet we got penalized big, I mean, big-time," Rohwer government tells employers like Rohwer that E-Verify provides "peace of mind." To green-light employees, the system matches documents, such as licenses and Social Security cards, to a U.S. government database of eligible workers. But it vets paperwork, not people. Experts say the E-Verify system is broken, not only exposing employers like Rohwer to raids, but also increasing an all too common crime: identity theft."This is a nationwide problem," Elhrick Cerdan, assistant special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations Omaha, who led the investigation into Gary's QuickSteak, told CBS News. Cerdan called Rohwer and his business victims. "This was in fact a targeted criminal investigation to rescue over a hundred victims of stolen entities," Cerdan said, emphasizing that this was a criminal investigation, not civil immigration enforcement. "Everybody is the victim of this broken system," Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies for the Libertarian Cato Institute, told CBS News. Nowrasteh called E-Verify a "wink-and-nod" system. "The thing that experts know that is sort of a dirty little secret, is E-Verify is a very easy-to-fool program," Nowrasteh said. He added that part of its appeal is that it doesn't work. "It allows politicians to talk tough about illegal immigration without actually imposing enormous costs on the U.S. economy," Nowrasteh said. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Matthew J. Tragesser told CBS News in a statement that "E-Verify consistently receives high marks from users and maintains a nearly perfect accuracy rate, while requiring no special software or additional costs to employers." "In recent months, staff at USCIS have taken an aggressive approach in concert with the Social Security Administration to systematically block E-Verify from automatically accepting SSNs that are known to have been used fraudulently," Tragesser went on. "E-Verify supports employers, but it does not take the place of their legal responsibility to ensure employee-presented documentation reasonably appears to be genuine and relates to the person presenting it." Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files 7.3 magnitude earthquake hits southern Alaska Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
17-07-2025
- CBS News
Workplace raids demonstrate the vulnerability of the federal E-Verify system, experts say
Omaha, Nebraska — Gary Rohwer built his Quicksteak empire at a meat processing center in Omaha, Nebraska. But then, a tactical team of federal agents raided his facility on June 10, and more than 70 of his assembly line employees were arrested by Homeland Security Investigations. He showed CBS News an old company photo, disclosing that about half of the employees in that photo were swept up in the raid. "Oh my God, half of them," Rohwer said. "It makes me sad, it really does, because these guys made us successful." Rohwer says he put his faith in E-Verify — the federal system used by more than one million employers each year, and which is mandatory in 10 states and by most federal contractors — to confirm the employment eligibility of would-be hires. "We did everything right, but yet we got penalized big, I mean, big time," Rohwer said. The government tells employers like Rohwer that E-Verify provides "peace of mind." To greenlight employees, the system matches documents, such as licenses and Social Security cards, to a U.S. government database of eligible workers. But it vets paperwork, not people. Experts say that the E-Verify system is broken, not only exposing employers like Rohwer to raids, but also increasing an all too common crime, identity theft. "This is a nationwide problem," Elhrick Cerdan, assistant special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations Omaha, who led the investigation into Gary's Quicksteak, told CBS News. Cerdan calls Rohwer and his business victims. "This was in fact a targeted criminal investigation to rescue over a hundred victims of stolen entities," Cerdan said, emphasizing that this was a criminal investigation, not civil immigration enforcement. "Everybody is the victim of this broken system," Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies for the Libertarian Cato Institute, told CBS News. Nowrasteh calls E-Verify a "wink-and-nod" system. "The thing that experts know that is sort of a dirty little secret, is E-Verify is a very easy to fool program," Nowrasteh said. He adds that part of its appeal is that it doesn't work. "It allows politicians to talk tough about illegal immigration without actually imposing enormous costs on the U.S. economy," Nowrasteh said. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Matthew J. Tragesser told CBS News in a statement that "E-Verify consistently receives high marks from users and maintains a nearly perfect accuracy rate, while requiring no special software or additional costs to employers." "In recent months, staff at USCIS have taken an aggressive approach in concert with the Social Security Administration to systematically block E-Verify from automatically accepting SSNs that are known to have been used fraudulently," Tragesser went on. "E-Verify supports employers, but it does not take the place of their legal responsibility to ensure employee-presented documentation reasonably appears to be genuine and relates to the person presenting it."
Mint
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Trump struggles to press deportations without damaging the economy
When federal agents raided Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Neb., last Tuesday, they arrested about 75 of the meat processor's workers, roughly half of the production line. The following day, the plant was operating at about 15% of capacity, and a skeleton crew strained to fill orders. Chief Executive Gary Rohwer can't see a future that doesn't include immigrant workers. 'Without them, there wouldn't be an industry," he said. President Trump's aggressive deportation push has slammed into an economic reality: Key industries in the U.S. rely heavily on workers living in the U.S. illegally, many of them for decades. That presents a major challenge for the administration unfolding in real time, with business leaders urging a softer approach while anti-immigration hard-liners demand more deportations. The conflict could be difficult to untangle—and public signs are emerging of a clash within the administration. The Department of Homeland Security late last week directed immigration officers to pause arrests at farms, restaurants and hotels, stressing that sweeps should focus on people in the U.S. illegally who have criminal backgrounds. 'Severe disruptions to our food supply would harm Americans," wrote Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on X Sunday. 'It took us decades to get into this mess and we are prioritizing deportations in a way that will get us out." At the same time, DHS appeared to walk back its own directive from last week. Demonstrators march through downtown Los Angeles on the fifth day of protests against ICE agents in the city. In a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership over the weekend, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem doubled down on the administration's efforts to deport millions of people living in the country illegally. '[W]e must dramatically intensify arrest and removal operations nationwide," she wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. 'This is a nonnegotiable national priority." ICE agents will be judged 'every day by how many arrests you, your teammates and your office are able to effectuate," she wrote, adding, 'Failure is not an option." She also said worksite enforcement—the types of raids that had been exempted for some industries in guidance issued days earlier—remained 'a cornerstone" of the president's deportation plan: 'There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE's efforts." A Homeland Security spokeswoman said on Monday that ICE isn't ruling out worksite enforcement at farms, restaurants, and hotels, and will give priority to places that are thought to be employing people with criminal records. A White House official said the administration is expanding deportation efforts in major cities, but added that 'anyone present in the United States illegally is at risk of deportation." The Trump administration and other conservatives argue that illegal immigration has robbed American workers of jobs, depressed wages and strained public resources. Administration officials believe that once those living in the U.S. illegally are evicted, the economy will improve for American workers. 'We must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America's largest Cities," Trump wrote in a Sunday Truth Social post, specifically calling out cities led by Democrats, such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Undocumented workers, he continued, are 'robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens." The recent fluctuations in the Trump administration's stance followed weeks of pressure from industry groups that predated the latest raids. Farm and meatpacking representatives argued that labor shortfalls loomed if current policy continued, and that the result could be higher food prices, according to trade groups and company lobbyists. The hospitality industry told administration officials that it faced acute workforce shortages and lobbied for more temporary visas for hotel workers, said Rosanna Maietta, chief executive of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Immigrants living in the U.S. illegally account for about 4.4% of the U.S. workforce, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis of 2023 census data. But their share of the workforce in some industries is much higher, the analysis found: 19% in landscaping services, 17% in crop production, 16% in animal slaughtering and processing and 13% in construction. Roughly 12 million people immigrated to the U.S. from 2021 to 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office, many of them either illegally or through an emergency process set up by the Biden administration. Many now have some kind of temporary permission to stay in the country and work, though they could ultimately face removal. Others sneaked into the country or overstayed visas. The newcomers provided the economy with an infusion of working-age people eager for jobs. Immigration boosted economic growth in recent years and helped cool a job market that was in danger of overheating by 'rebalancing the tightest parts of the labor market, where wage and price pressures were most extreme," Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a note last year. A migrant worker on a farm in Homestead, Fla., in April. Industries that rely on migrant labor have been adding jobs at a slower rate than other private-sector employers since last summer, when the number of people entering the U.S. began to fall, according to an analysis by economist Jed Kolko. The number of foreign-born people either working or looking for work fell by about one million from March to May. While economists caution that data may not be reliable, some say the trend suggests that many living here illegally have dropped out of the labor force. How much of that is because of raids is unclear. But employers across the country said that the enforcement actions disrupted businesses. ICE agents arrested 16 workers at a warehouse in North Bergen, N.J., in February. Last month, agents arrested 53 workers at a hotel construction site in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In late May, immigration agents raided a popular San Diego restaurant, claiming that 19 employees had used false immigration documents to get hired. Officers inside detained a few workers, then exited through the back entrance to avoid a crowd of protesters that had formed outside the restaurant, according to Anaclaudia Uribe, a hostess who was arriving to work at the time. The restaurant shut down all seven of its locations for two days. Ron Robbins, who runs a family farm in Sackets Harbor, N.Y., has been short-handed since March, when he says around 45 immigration agents showed up. ICE agents searched the 8,000-acre operation that milks 1,500 cows and grows corn, soybeans and some produce, then arrested eight people they said were in the country illegally. One of the detainees was a Guatemalan man who worked as the top assistant to the farm's tourist business, Robbins said. Since the raid on his property, Robbins, a 4th-generation farmer, said family members are working 18-hour days to keep the operation going, except for the strawberry patch. 'We don't have enough people to do this work," he said. 'It's a no-win situation." At a construction site in Tallahassee, Fla., workers were pouring the concrete foundation for a 220-unit student housing development the morning of May 29 when federal authorities swarmed the 5-acre site, according to project supervisor Joe Caliendo, who saw the chaos unfolding from an elevated deck. Federal agents climbed over fences and ordered everyone to form two lines: U.S. citizens and noncitizens. Those who could prove their citizenship or legal status were released. Noncitizens who didn't have their paperwork with them—or said they had it in their cars across the street—were loaded onto buses and driven away. The agents from ICE, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies arrested more than 100 of the 175 workers on the site. The raid interrupted the work, and soon the concrete in the unfinished foundation was at risk of hardening. Caliendo called his subcontractors in a panic to find replacement staff to complete the job. It would have cost millions of dollars to redo the process. The next day, about 20 employees showed up to work, several of whom had been detained and then released the day before. A few dozen more came back over the next week. Many were scared to return. By now, Hedrick Brothers Construction, the company leading the project, has worked with its subcontractors to restaff the project to near full capacity. But rehiring has been an uphill battle. The U.S. construction sector is facing a major labor shortage, with a need for about 500,000 more workers, by some estimates. That gaping shortage is part of why undocumented workers have become a vital part of getting construction done. 'I don't want anybody to think that people are hiring undocumented people to save money," said Caliendo, who added that the workers hired by his subcontractors get paid between $20 and $50 per hour on average. 'They hire them because nobody else will do the work they do or work as hard as they do." Caliendo figures the raid set back the project by about three weeks. The student housing development, located off the Florida State University campus, has a hard deadline: late August, when students start moving in. If Hedrick Brothers misses it, the company will be charged tens of thousands of dollars for each late day. The enforcement operation at Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha was equally disruptive. When federal agents stormed in and started rounding up workers, some fled to the roof or hid behind pallets in a freezer, Rohwer said. Of the company's 150 employees who directly handled meat—nearly all of whom were Hispanic immigrants—about 75 were arrested and loaded onto buses. Two-thirds of the remaining ones didn't show up to work the next day. As of Monday morning, Glenn Valley Foods was working at about 20% of capacity. Rohwer said other meat processing companies in Omaha told him that word of the raid spread so quickly that many workers at those facilities, fearful of additional enforcement actions, walked off their jobs shortly after. Workers on the production line at Glenn Valley Foods earn $18 to $19 an hour, Rohwer said. It is tough work—marinating, pressing and slicing meat in a room chilled to 40 degrees Fahrenheit. 'They are hardworking, show up on time, don't complain," Rohwer said. 'If you take the Hispanics out of this country, it's going to be terrible." Many of the arrested workers had been with the company for 10 years or more and were like family, Rohwer said. Company administrators cook Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for production workers. Rohwer said that since starting the company 18 years ago, he has used the E-Verify system, a government program meant to weed out fake documents by comparing information from a worker's I-9 employment eligibility verification form to records available to federal agencies. He thought that once they were cleared by the program, he could assume they were legitimate. Rohwer is now trying to get operations back to normal and bring on new workers. He said he received more than 100 applications in the aftermath of the raid, and had begun hiring some. All but about five of the new applicants are immigrants. Write to Arian Campo-Flores at Rebecca Picciotto at Patrick Thomas at and Tarini Parti at
Wall Street Journal
16-06-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Trump Struggles to Press Deportations Without Damaging the Economy
When federal agents raided Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Neb., last Tuesday, they arrested about 75 of the meat processor's workers, roughly half of the production line. The following day, the plant was operating at about 15% of capacity, and a skeleton crew strained to fill orders. Chief Executive Gary Rohwer can't see a future that doesn't include immigrant workers. 'Without them, there wouldn't be an industry,' he said.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
ICE raids are making CEO focus on employees even more important
In today's CEO Daily: Diane Brady on the impact of ICE raids on CEOs. The big story: Israel attacks Iran and oil surges. The markets: Down on Middle East fight. Analyst notes from Convera, UBS, and Deutsche Bank. Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune. Good morning. I spoke with a C-suite leader of a large retailer this week who shook his head when I asked about the ICE raids and protests. 'I understand and support our laws,' he said. 'What I don't understand is why we have to be so vindictive and cruel in applying them.' Therein lies the challenge for CEOs in speaking up right now as some fear that seemingly innocuous statements might put a target on their backs. We do hear from those who are already wounded, like Gary Rohwer of Glenn Valley Foods whose plant is operating at 30% capacity after federal immigration officials arrested half his workforce, despite him clearing them through the government's own E-verify system. Even those who haven't been raided may be feeling an impact from the crackdowns. More than a million foreign-born workers have dropped out of the labor force since March, according to the St. Louis Fed. One leader in the construction sector told me that one of his workers quit because they're worried a raid might harm an undocumented sibling who's staying in their home. For Scott Boatwright of Chipotle, whose workforce is 52% Hispanic, the answer has been to focus on his people. As he put it during a recent Leadership Next podcast: 'All of our team members go through the E-verify process. But it's not lost on me that I could have team members within the organization that could have family members that are affected one way or another. I think it's important for us as leaders in the organization to ensure we are connecting with all of our people, and just a mental check-in to say, 'Hey, how are you doing? How can we help? How can we support? I know you may be going through a challenging time.'' More news CEO Daily via Diane Brady at This story was originally featured on
