Iowa - Postville immigrants file suit, claim abuse
Posted on Friday, May 16 @ 13:19:19 EDT
Topic: immigration and customs enforcement
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 A federal class action lawsuit filed Thursday by immigrants arrested in the Postville raid allege Agriprocessors acquired false identification for workers, along with numerous allegations of abuse from supervisors.
Antonin Trinidad Candido, Roman Trinidad Candido and Maria del Refugio Masias, all Agriprocessors employees, filed the suit through the Peck Law Firm and Dornan & Lustgarten firm in Omaha, Neb.
The suit alleges the detainees haven't had adequate time for legal services and moving them out of Iowa to various detention centers, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said, would interfere with and effectively destroy the ongoing relationship between detainees and their attorneys.
Topics: Illegal Immigration, federal class action lawsuit, Postville raid, Agriprocessors, false identification, allegations of abuse, Antonin Trinidad Candido, Roman Trinidad Candido, Maria del Refugio Masias, Peck Law Firm, Doman & Lustgarten firm, Omaha, Nebraska, detainees, dentention centers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sonia Parras Konrad, withheld paycheck money, immigration fees, physically abused, David M. Hoagland, federal racketeering laws, Department of Transporation investigator, Department of Homeland Security, Julie Myers, Claude Arnold, Michael Chertoff, Michael Mukasey, Iowa
May 15, 2008
Trish Mehaffey
gazetteonline.com
Gazette Communications
Detainees who have spoken with attorneys are providing reports of substantial violations by Agriprocessors, including wage, labor and immigration violations, according to the suit. The detainees are immediate release or for a reasonable period of time before being moved out of state to meet with counsel and have confidential communications.
The suit claims Sonia Parras Konrad, a Polk County attorney, interviewed over 50 detainees who told her Agriprocessors: procured false identification for its immigrant employees; withheld money from their paychecks for "immigration fees"; didn't allow employees to use the restroom during 10-hour shifts; didn't compensate employees for overtime; and were physically abused by supervisors.
The suit also has excerpts from an affidavit filed by David M. Hoagland, senior special agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in support of the search warrant issued on Agriprocessors. The alleged violations in the affidavit include:
— Equipment issued to perform work was substandard
— A floor supervisors duct-taped the eyes of a Guatemalan employee and then hit the employee with a meat hook
— Immigrants were paid $5 an hour and after three or four months, bumped up to $6.
The affidavit also contains numerous allegations of violations of the federal racketeering laws including:
— Employee's taxes were deducted and deposited into bank accounts belonging to an unknown person or people.
— An employee transported immigrant employees across state lines to Minnesota to get false state identification cards
— Checks were issued to certain immigrants with an unknown person's name on it and the check would be cashed at another portion of the plant
— A Department of Transportation investigator provided information that a supervisor at the company used an intricate and unlawful scheme to purchase and register a large number of car for resale to the employees and a supervisor forced the employees to buy the cars from him or be fired.
Named in the suit is: United States Immigration Customs Enforcement; Department of Homeland Security; Julie Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Claude Arnold, Immigration and Customs special agent in charge at Postville; Michael Chertoff, secretary of Department of Homeland Security and Michael Mukasey, Attorney General of the United States.
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