I looked around at the coverage of the Swift & Co raid after an attentive VDARE.COM reader tipped us off about a possible riot situation. As it turns out, the riot was cleanly avoided (thanks to some clever maneuvering by police) but some interesting issues were raised in the meantime:

• As the second of three sets of buses left the Swift & Co. plant carrying away the illegals, a thinning crowd of 150-200 shouted at the ICE and police officers. One man shouted, "You break up these families at Christmas time. Give these people some answers,” while a woman nearby carried a sign saying "Don't take my parents at Christmas."

So, by their logic we should forget about the hundreds of victims of identity theft suffering on Christmas; let the victims rot until it's more convenient for the criminals to leave their families.

Also noteworthy: "Don't take my parents over Dec. 25th" doesn't have quite the same ring.

• The protestors initially planned to block the buses from leaving with the criminals, and then pushed over a police barricade, but both times were subdued by police and SWAT teams.

  One man screamed in the face of police: “We’re not going to take this anymore. We’re going to fight back...”

  Andres Guerrero, who teaches Spanish at Aims Community College, joined the protesters. He said, “In ten years we’re going to take over the southland, trust me. “This is our land and always will be our land.”

Email Professor Guerrero here.

• A single ICE supporter showed up at the protest. After approaching the fence line, he shouted, “I support what you’re doing, and a lot of people support what you’re doing.” Hearing him, a the protestors descended on the man (who only identified himself as "Gary") and chased him down the street, shouting threats to him and his family. He got a police escort out.

Now that it's all gone down, the Greeley Tribune is posting the individual arrest warrants of some of the illegals who were taken away. Interestingly, in most cases, the arrest warrants give the names both of the ID thieves and their victims, usually other Hispanics.

For more detailed information, look here. You'll find links for all of the relevant Greeley Tribune articles as well as a slideshow, and video and an audio clip. (Multimedia of ICE raid on Swift plant, The Greeley Tribune , December 12, 2006 and New buses arrive, protests continue December 12, 2006 )