05/05/06 Farm Bureau wants raid investigated

Washington Ag May 5, 2006 The Washington Farm Bureau has asked Governor Chris Gregoire to investigate the circumstances surrounding a multi-agency raid on a small crab-processing plant in Chinook, Washington, in which several employees were detained and questioned by federal immigration officials. Farm Bureau spokesman Dean Boyer says the information they have is that more than a dozen state and federal agents were involved in the raid on the Bell Bouy Crab Company. He says the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement office confirms it was involved, but it won't, or can't, say who the lead agency was. Boyer: "So we've asked the governor to help us determine who the lead agency was, how the federal agencies were invited to be involved in a state raid, or why state agencies were involved in what was a federal raid. And, especially since the various agencies that were involved all have different areas of responsibility. Theoretically each of them would need their own search warrant to go after their particular area of responsibility. And we just have lots of questions about how this raid was conducted." Boyer says the crab processor that was raided is a Farm Bureau member and is the communities largest employer and he says production at the facility is down 50 percent since the raid. I'm Bob Hoff.