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05-18-2008, 10:25 AM #1
Massive immigration raid shakes up Iowa community
May 17, 2008, 10:44PM
Massive immigration raid shakes up Iowa community
Incarceration of 10 percent of town is a disaster, says school official
By SPENCER S. HSU
Washington Post
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POSTVILLE, IOWA — Antonio Escobedo ran to get his wife Monday when he saw a helicopter circling overhead and immigration agents approaching the meatpacking plant where they both work.
The couple hid for hours inside the plant before obtaining refuge at St. Bridget's Catholic Church, where hundreds of other Guatemalan and Mexican families gathered, hoping to avoid arrest.
"I like my job. I like my work. I like it here in Iowa," said Escobedo, 38, an illegal immigrant from Yescas, Mexico, who has raised his three children for 11 years in Postville. "Are they mad because I'm working?"
Monday's raid on the Agriprocessors plant, in which 389 immigrants were arrested, was the Bush administration's largest crackdown on illegal workers at a single site. It has upended this tree-lined community, which calls itself "Hometown to the World."
Half of the school system's 600 students were absent Tuesday, including 90 percent of Hispanic children, because their parents were arrested or in hiding.
Current and former officials of the Department of Homeland Security say its raid on the largest employer in northeast Iowa reflects the administration's decision to put pressure on companies with large numbers of illegal immigrant workers, particularly in the meat industry.
Who is held accountable?
The disruptive impact on the nation's largest supplier of kosher beef and on the surrounding community has provoked renewed criticism that the administration is disproportionately targeting workers instead of employers, and that the resulting turmoil is worse than the underlying crimes.
"They don't go after employers. They don't put CEOs in jail," complained the Postville Community Schools Superintendent, David Strudthoff, 51, who said the sudden incarceration of more than 10 percent of the town's population of 2,300 "is like a natural disaster — only this one is manmade."
He added, "In the end, it is the greater population that will suffer and the workforce that will be held accountable."
U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, said enforcement efforts against corporations that commit immigration violations have "plummeted" under the Bush administration.
"Until we enforce our immigration laws equally against both employers and employees who break the law, we will continue to have a problem," he said.
Julie Myers, assistant homeland security secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said that the agency has seldom been so aggressive, including opening criminal investigations of company officials. While cases have netted only a handful of sentences for low-level managers so far, Myers said, such white-collar crime investigations typically take years to develop.
Pressure is mostly indirect
Lobbyists and former officials say that in unleashing ICE, the administration is trying to "turn up the pain" to motivate businesses and Congress to support the comprehensive immigration changes sought by President Bush, such as a temporary-worker program and earned legalization. If the existing legal tools are too blunt, they said, Congress should create a fairer system.
But the pressure on employers — whose wages and hiring practices have lured illegal workers to both large cities and small towns — has mostly been indirect and economic: While workplace arrests have risen since 2002, from 510 to 4,940, only 90 criminal arrests have involved personnel officials.
No officials at Agriprocessors have been charged. According to an affidavit filed in last week's arrests, 76 percent of the 968 employees on the company's payroll over the last three months of 2007 used false or suspect Social Security numbers.
A 'big, splashy show'
Agriprocessors has faced other troubles, as well. In 2006, it paid a $600,000 settlement to the Environmental Protection Agency to resolve wastewater pollution problems, and this March it was assessed $182,000 in fines for 39 state health, safety and labor violations.
"This employer has a long history of violating every law that's out there — labor laws, environmental laws, now immigration laws," said Mark Lauritsen, international vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has waged a bitter battle to organize the Postville plant.
The union charged that the immigration raid disrupted a separate U.S. Labor Department probe into alleged child labor law violations.
ICE may be "deporting 390 witnesses" to the labor investigation, Lauritsen said, adding, "This administration seems to place a larger value on big, splashy shows in this immigration raid than in vigorously enforcing other labor laws."
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05-18-2008, 11:40 AM #2
So where they arrested 300 in the meatpacking plant hundreds of others where hiding in the Catholic Church? Definitely time for ICE to take the gloves off and raid these churches too!
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05-18-2008, 11:50 AM #3
We need a shake-up all over the country.
Sweep!
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05-18-2008, 11:57 AM #4
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"I like my job. I like my work. I like it here in Iowa," said Escobedo, 38, an illegal immigrant from Yescas, Mexico, who has raised his three children for 11 years in Postville. "Are they mad because I'm working?" Yes
It has upended this tree-lined community, which calls itself "Hometown to the World." Up-ended?, I really doubt it
Half of the school system's 600 students were absent Tuesday, including 90 percent of Hispanic children, because their parents were arrested or in hiding. Excellent news. Now children of citizens and legal residents can learn.
Who is held accountable? Every government of every country that sends their people illegally to the US to find work, the US Chamber of Commerce, Congress, the Health care system and big business who wants cheap labor SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE
He added, "In the end, it is the greater population that will suffer and the workforce that will be held accountable." Wrong, every American will benefit from every illegal alien who gets deported.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, said enforcement efforts against corporations that commit immigration violations have "plummeted" under the Bush administration.
"Until we enforce our immigration laws equally against both employers and employees who break the law, we will continue to have a problem," he said. Wow, something I agree with.
No officials at Agriprocessors have been charged. According to an affidavit filed in last week's arrests, 76 percent of the 968 employees on the company's payroll over the last three months of 2007 used false or suspect Social Security numbers.
A 'big, splashy show'
Agriprocessors has faced other troubles, as well. In 2006, it paid a $600,000 settlement to the Environmental Protection Agency to resolve wastewater pollution problems, and this March it was assessed $182,000 in fines for 39 state health, safety and labor violations. So, they are criminals in other areas as well? Great.
"This employer has a long history of violating every law that's out there — labor laws, environmental laws, now immigration laws," said Mark Lauritsen, international vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has waged a bitter battle to organize the Postville plant.
The union charged that the immigration raid disrupted a separate U.S. Labor Department probe into alleged child labor law violations.
ICE may be "deporting 390 witnesses" to the labor investigation, Lauritsen said, adding, "This administration seems to place a larger value on big, splashy shows in this immigration raid than in vigorously enforcing other labor laws." Pure garbage.
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05-18-2008, 12:13 PM #5AprilGuest
Duplicate post
Update: Freeloading Illegal Alien Continues to Taunt U.S....
03-28-2024, 01:10 PM in illegal immigration News Stories & Reports