DALLAS -- More than a dozen former Swift & Company employees joined in a suit against the meat packing company for $2 million, alleging officials conspired to depress wages by hiring illegal immigrants.

The 18 former employees are legal residents who worked at the Swift meatpacking plant in Cactus, Texas, north of Amarillo.

Swift is based in Greeley, Colo.

Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided the Cactus plant and five others last week. Nearly 1,300 employees were arrested during the multistate immigration sweep that temporarily halted operations.

Dallas attorney Angel Reyes said the plaintiffs are victims in a long-standing scheme by Swift to depress and artificially lower the wages of its workers by knowingly hiring illegal workers.

"When the Swift plant opened in Cactus, wages were approximately $20 an hour," said another plaintiffs attorney, Michael Haygood. "Now, the average wage is approximately $12 to $13 an hour. Illegal immigration has fueled this depression in wages."

Attorneys for the former employees filed a lawsuit late Friday against Swift and its owners, Dallas-based investment firm HM Capital Partners. The lawsuit became public on Monday.

They contend Swift and HM Capital Partners engaged in racketeering to manipulate commerce.

Swift President and CEO Sam Rovit has said the company has never knowingly hired illegal workers and does not condone the practice.

The company's hiring managers receive training on document fraud, federal hiring guidelines and interviewing practices. They also check the name and Social Security numbers of employees, said Swift spokesman Sean McHugh.

"We're contiuning to use the same practices we had in place before," McHugh said. "We're performing as much diligence as we can under current law."

The lawsuit stems from a separate case in which former Swift employees claimed they were fired for filing workers compensation claims, Reyes said.

Swift bills itself as the world's second-largest beef and pork processor. It is actively recruiting workers to replace the employees it lost.