300 immigrants on lam as arrests hang in limbo
By TONY LEYS • tleys@dmreg.com • June 11, 2008


Several hundred alleged lawbreakers remain on the run in the wake of last month's immigration raid at Postville, but the federal government shows few signs of trying to find them.

Only two arrests have been reported since the day of the May 12 raid at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant.

The U.S. attorney's office said at the time that it had criminal warrants for 697 people in the case. The raid led to 389 arrests, including 306 on criminal charges. That meant more than 300 warrants remained outstanding.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said this week that federal authorities have not entered the outstanding warrants into a widely used law-enforcement computer system. The system, run by the National Crime Information Center, routinely alerts police if there's a warrant out for someone they stop for a traffic infraction or other offense.

Jim Benzoni, a Des Moines immigration lawyer, said the lack of follow-up arrests is typical in such cases. He said federal authorities received the attention they wanted from the raid, and now they're moving on to other things.

"This was not about law enforcement. This was not even about immigration policy," he said of the raid. "This was about publicity. It was a made-for-TV melodrama."

Benzoni said that's why agents showed up in dramatic black outfits, with big pistols strapped to their thighs and a military helicopter flying overhead, all of which he said was unnecessary.

Robert Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Cedar Rapids, declined to respond to such speculation. "People can say what they want," he said. "That's the great thing about our country."

Teig said he couldn't estimate the number of outstanding warrants, which are sealed from public view. He said he couldn't talk about why only two arrests have been made since the raid, or why his office decided not to enter information about the outstanding warrants into the law-enforcement computer system.
Teig said the two recent arrests were related to the raid but the people were not among the original 697 sought.

He said his boss, U.S. Attorney Matt Dummermuth, was too busy to talk about the issue.

Right after the raid, many immigrants believed that more arrests were imminent. Scores of them sought sanctuary in St. Bridget's Catholic Church.

Sister Mary McCauley, the church's pastoral administrator, said the fear has eased a bit.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, in the days immediately following the raid, it was probably a 10," she said. "Now, it's down to maybe a 6 or 7."

But, she said, "there's still great anxiety. "

Postville Police Chief Michael Halse said many of the people wanted on warrants from the raid probably have left town by now.

Halse said his department does not routinely act as an immigration-enforcement arm. It can't afford the training, he said, and he wants immigrants to feel comfortable reporting crimes to his officers without fearing that they will be deported.

He said his officers would not routinely call immigration authorities to check on the status of someone they pull over for a minor offense, such as speeding. If a warrant was listed on the central computer system, however, the person would be detained and immigration authorities would be alerted, he said. If police arrest someone for a serious offense, such as drunken driving, they routinely check with federal authorities to see whether the person should be held for immigration reasons, he said.

Jim Saunders, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Safety, said state troopers follow similar procedures. Troopers would automatically detain a person if the computer system showed a federal warrant, he said. Troopers also could call federal officials if they suspect a person is in the country illegally, he said.

Dan Vondra, an immigration lawyer from Iowa City, said the lack of subsequent arrests makes him wonder about the quality of the outstanding warrants. "I think it does beg the question: Why aren't they going after these people?" he said.

Vondra represents several people arrested in the raid. He said much of the information against them appears to have come from plant managers, whose credibility has come under question.

Vondra said the people named in the outstanding warrants could wind up being arrested if they are picked up in future immigration raids or if they are brought to a jail on a serious, unrelated charge.




http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/p ... /1001/NEWS