By Times Staff
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
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Nearly three months have passed since the biggest immigration raid in United States history apprehended 389 working Iowans from a Postville, Iowa, meatpacking plant.Since then, only two plant managers — none of them owners — have been arrested for what apparently was a continuing criminal enterprise. The guilty pleas from those arrested and deported strongly suggest that Agriprocessors, Inc. unlawfully relied on illegal employees to operate.
New concerns suggest that the enforcement decisions by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement wing of Homeland Security have jeopardized the continuing investigation that might hold company officials responsible. By targeting workers in the surprise May 12 raid and forcing hurry-up guilty pleas and deportations, ICE has lost valuable witnesses who might have implicated the company for its obviously illegal hiring practices.
The American Civil Liberties Union disclosed that this hurry-up justice included scripts for prosecutors, judges and defense lawyers to follow during hearings at a holding center 70 miles away from the defendants’ homes.
Illegal or not, these detainees are eligible under the U.S. Constitution to many rights afforded American citizens. Who among us would desire a scripted hearing?
These lingering concerns become important because those jobs filled by illegal immigrants now are being taken by legal immigrants. Some of those legal immigrants are Somali natives who received U.S. refuge from their impoverished, war-torn African nation.
These Somalis had lawfully resettled in the Minneapolis area and now are showing up in Postville. They are being hired by a company with a proven track record for exploiting impoverished immigrants. The Justice Department has the guilty pleas to prove it.
Yet, Agriprocessors is allowed to limp along with a business plan that requires lousy wages for positions that only an impoverished immigrant would consider.
Agriprocessors and many other Midwestern meat processors have proven their businesses cannot succeed without immigrant labor. Our Justice and Labor departments should be working overtime to prevent the exploitation of these vulnerable workers, legal or illegal.
Instead, their narrow enforcement of one end of immigration law is putting more immigrants at risk and shielding a company already implicated for indefensible abuses.
Source: Times, Aug 05, 2008