DES MOINES, Iowa, June 2, 2008
No Employers Charged In Immigration Bust
Almost 400 Illegal Immigrant Workers Arrested, But Still No Managers Facing Charges
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In this Dec. 1, 2004 file photo, a truck leaves the AgriProcessors, Inc., slaughterhouse and packing plant in Postville, Iowa. After the biggest immigration raid in U.S. history on May 14, 2008, hundreds of workers have been sentenced but not one company official as yet faces any charges. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
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Worker advocates and lawmakers say the fact that nearly 400 workers were arrested in the May 12 raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville - or more than one-third of the total number of employees - proves that company officials must have known they were hiring illegal immigrants.
"Until we enforce our immigration laws equally against both employers and employees who break the law, we will continue to have a problem with immigration," said U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, an Iowa Democrat whose district borders Postville.
Such raids are designed to get headlines and make it appear that the federal government is cracking down on illegal immigration, said Frank Sharry, executive director of the immigration reform group America's Voice. But he says even those who think enforcement is the answer can't seriously believe the 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. can be arrested and deported.
"Even if you wanted to pursue an imbalanced enforcement-first strategy, the only thoughtful way to do it would be to go after employers, make examples of them and try to scare other employers into compliance," he said. "They're not doing that."
The owner of the Postville plant, Aaron Rubashkin, has said that the company is conducting its own investigation "into the circumstances which led to the recent work site enforcement action, and is fully cooperating with the government." He said the company could not respond to specific allegations due to pending legal issues.
Court documents filed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent before the raid at the Postville plant indicate that authorities believed company supervisors were violating a number of federal laws including harboring illegal immigrants. An application and affidavit for search warrant alleged that:
Immigration officials said the 389 arrests at the plant meant it was the largest single-site immigration raid in U.S. history. Of those arrested, 297 pleaded guilty and were sentenced. The guilty pleas included use of false identification documents to obtain employment, false use of a Social Security number or cards and unlawful re-entry into the United States.
About 60 of the workers taken into custody were released for humanitarian reasons and do not face criminal charges, while 20 others were detained on immigration violations only and face deportation proceedings, said Bob Teig, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in the Iowa's northern district. Five other defendants did not enter pleas and have cases pending in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids.
The large number of people arrested, coupled with the allegations against Agriprocessors, has led some to conclude that the company is at least as culpable as the workers.
"I'll be interested to see if federal authorities will be bringing any charges against the employer," Braley said in a telephone interview.
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Braley has questioned the cost of the Postville raid as well as an operation at Swift & Co. plants in Marshalltown and five other Midwest cities in 2006. Although federal agents arrested about 1,300 workers in raids at the Swift plants, Braley noted that no top company officials were charged.Is it not reasonable to assume that if over a third of the work force employed at this plant violated labor law in one form or another that management has to have some complicity in those violations?
Rep. Timothy Bishop, D- NYICE officials told Braley they didn't have a cost estimate for the Swift raids.
Although it primarily has been Democrats who have questioned why few company officials are charged in immigration raids, the Republican congressman who represents Postville also expressed disappointment about how that operation was handled.
James Carstensen, a spokesman for Rep. Tom Latham, said he views the raid as a blow to families seeking a better life and for the community, which is suffering economically.
"It's a tragedy of an immigration system that is absolutely broken and the tragedy of an enforcement system that is probably not working as effectively as promised by the Bush administration," Carstensen said.
Rep. Timothy Bishop raised concerns about the federal action during a May 20 hearing of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and Labor.
"Is it not reasonable to assume that if over a third of the work force employed at this plant violated labor law in one form or another that management has to have some complicity in those violations?" he asked James Spero, a deputy assistant director for ICE.
Spero answered that he couldn't comment on a potential ongoing investigation but said immigration enforcement at workplaces does include investigations into violations by management and owners.
"The goal for our work site operations is to target and develop cases against the egregious employers who are committing violations," he said.
Spero said investigations of the employers often take more time, and he noted that agents in Postville had search warrants and seized numerous documents from the company.
Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the agency, said in a statement that it targets employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants but "must build work site investigations in stages."
"Developing sufficient evidence against employers requires complex, white-collar crime investigations that can take years to bear fruit," she said.
The agency said it filed criminal charges against more than 90 individuals in company supervisory positions last year. That is out of a total of 863 people who were charged with crimes during the year and 4,000 administrative arrests.
Agriprocessors, established in 1987 when Brooklyn, New York, butcher Aaron Rubashkin bought a shuttered meatpacking plant, is now the nation's largest kosher meatpacking facility. The owner's son, Sholom Rubashkin, has been running the Postville operation.
However, the company said in its statement that it was seeking a new chief executive for the Postville operation.
"The best course of action for the company, its employees, the local community and our customers is to bring new leadership to Agriprocessors," Rubashkin said in the statement.
The plant was closed on the day of the raid but resumed operation the next day at a reduced level.
Company officials said they were hiring replacement employees and were working with immigration officials to "help us bolster our compliance efforts to employ only properly documented employees."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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This is really BS. Although I think these workers should be deported, they were inticed up here by employers willing to hire them. Those emplorers need to be penalized. If they don''t offer the jobs, the illegals will not come. It is always the less powerful, and in this case the workers, that are penalized. The powerful get off scott free. It is disgusting.
WHY ARE THE HR MANAGERS WALKING AWAY FREE as a bird. They the HR Managers are like the ducks I bet they all flew out as the weather around there got hot.
I believe they should all be down in jail with the employees they are the one who make this possible.
The best of good byes Frank Bowers of Austin, Tx
Posted by cornbiker
But McCain will?
"I, personally, like the new ideas taken up in Arizona. If an employer is found guilty of hiring illegals he/she is fined $10,000 for the first offense, or something like that. For a second offense, his/her licensc to operate the business is revoked for six months and there is a significant fine for it. "
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So true. It was implemented in Oklahoma and it is working well in both states. Illegals have left those states to either go back to Mexico or whatever country or left to go to other states with less strict laws.
The bottom line is that it doesn''''t cost a penny to deport them. They self deport on their own!!!
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Posted by mrpisces
No.... They just went to other illegal-immigrant-friendly states! Like California! Let''s just legalize them so we can end this problem!
Copy & Paste and distribute freely.
How much did they charge out per man hour for work and how much did they pay the illegals?
That will tell you how much money the employers made off of these almost 400 illegals.
Regards,
Posted by Nancy_Naive
It''s probably that guy from lifelock that drives around a truck with his real SS number on the side.
One can assume that the law enforcement and judicial system in America is corrupt and has failed.
There such be an investigation, but the investigatores will probably be corrupt too. We have become Mexico.
I couldn''t agree more. They should sentence the employers to one year in federal prison and fine them $500,000 for each illegal immigrant they have in their employ.
The illegal immigration problem would be over immediately, and all those here would be forced to go home voluntarily.
"I, personally, like the new ideas taken up in Arizona. If an employer is found guilty of hiring illegals he/she is fined $10,000 for the first offense, or something like that. For a second offense, his/her licensc to operate the business is revoked for six months and there is a significant fine for it. "
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So true. It was implemented in Oklahoma and it is working well in both states. Illegals have left those states to either go back to Mexico or whatever country or left to go to other states with less strict laws.
The bottom line is that it doesn''t cost a penny to deport them. They self deport on their own!!!
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