Hundreds arrested in immigration raid at Iowa Kosher plant
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By staff and wire reports
Federal immigration agents on Monday arrested more than 300 people during a raid at a Postville, Iowa, meat processing plant owned by the same people who own a Kosher meat plant in Gordon, Neb.
The raid by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was the largest in Iowa history, Matt M. Dummermuth, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, said at a news conference.
Dummermuth said the raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in northeast Iowa came after months of planning, beginning in October 2007. Federal agents were helped by state and local police.
According to an affidavit and search warrant, authorities relied heavily on an informant who infiltrated the plant with documents provided by ICE. The informant was hired in January and wore recording devices monitored by ICE.
The informant allegedly witnessed a system where some employees were paid in cash or with checks that did not have Agriprocessors' name on them.
Authorities said more than 300 workers were arrested on a variety of charges included fraudulent use of Social Security numbers and identity theft.
“Can’t speculate on if that number will go up,” said Claud Arnold, special agent in charge of ICE’s Bloomington, Minn., office. Arnold said the agency would have more information today. (TUESDAY)
Of those arrested, 44 were released for humanitarian reasons, primarily because they must care for children. Those released were ordered to report to court later.
The hundreds of people arrested were held in local jails or driven by bus about 75 miles to the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds in Waterloo. Federal authorities previously leased the fairgrounds and have turned it into a secure center.
People arrested will be fed three meals a day, plus an evening snack, Arnold said. All those taken to the fairgrounds should be removed by Wednesday night.
Authorities said they notified Agriprocessors officials before the raid and that the company cooperated with the investigation. The company shut down its operation Monday before the raid to avoid safety problems.
Agriprocessors is the world’s largest kosher meatpacking plant. Its owners, the Rubushkin family of New York, also own Local Pride in Gordon, a kosher plant operated in cooperation with the Oglala Sioux tribe of South Dakota.
Some have criticized December 2006 immigration raids at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants, including one in Grand Island, part of a larger action in six states, including Iowa. Asked if Monday’s action differed from previous raids, officials said no.
“We’re doing things the way we always do,” Arnold said. “Standard operating procedure. We’re doing things the right way.”
The raid began about 10 a.m. when agents entered the plant, looking for evidence of identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers and for people who are in the country illegally, ICE spokesman Tim Counts said.
Counts said a toll-free telephone number had been set up to assist family members of those arrested who have questions about their detention status and the removal process.
Sister Mary McCauley, a Roman Catholic nun at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville, said family members of plant workers came to the nearby church in tears.
“The people right now are hearing and seeing the helicopters,” McCauley said Monday morning. “They are just panic-stricken and very frightened and some of them are coming to the church as a safe haven.”
The church is about five blocks from the plant, she said.
She said rumors began swirling around the community on Friday about an upcoming raid, leaving many people worried.
After immigration officials arrived Monday with buses, vans and two helicopters, she went to the plant to help provide information and assist workers, but said was not allowed to get close.
Many of the plant workers are Hispanic, mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, she said.
Asked about the raid during a Monday news conference, Gov. Chet Culver said both illegal immigrants and companies that knowingly hire them should be prosecute.
“Illegal means illegal, not just those who are crossing the border illegally but those who are responsible for helping to make it happen,” Culver said.
Culver said he’d raised humanitarian issues with immigration authorities.
The governor said he’d been told last week there would be some kind of federal action.
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Concerned wrote on May 13, 2008 12:38 am:
Dano wrote on May 13, 2008 12:46 pm:
Of course, we could solve this problem by in one simple way.
Close off all of the borders now. No papers or visa, no admittance, no exceptions. All vehicles, trucks and ships are searched upon entrance, no exceptions. Anyone caught entering is sent back to their country immediately, no exceptions.
Then get eveyone illegal, on the tax roles and legal residents and put on the path to becoming citizens. No amenesty annoucement until after the border is closed. Any crimials and their families, born on this soil or not, shall be deported immediately, with the only exception being those who are only guilty of crossing the border illegally. We get the hard working folks and the honest citizens, and get rid of the criminal element. Lastly, you commit a crime after staying and are net yet a citizen. Automatic jailtime and then deported with the rest. you can still do your hard time like the rest, but after that you are gone.
This also helps curb the drug trafficking issues that go along with this problem and reduces the amount drugs on the street. That can be an internal focus at that point.
We rounded them up before and during the great depression, and that was way before today's technology was anywhere close to existing. It is historical fact. We can sure do it again. I won't be quite as hard as other by allowing the law abiding folks to stay and earn their way, but no so geneous as to allow the criminals a chance to stay either. "