Thread: Jail time after raid a surprise

Jail time after raid a surprise
By TONY LEYS • tleys@dmreg.com • July 5, 2008

Critics and supporters of this spring's Postville immigration raid agree on one thing: It's surprising that 304 immigrants are serving jail sentences instead of being deported immediately.

Most of the immigrants arrested at the Agriprocessors plant were sentenced to spend five months in jail before being sent home. Some interviewed in jail said they hope to be sent home sooner than that, but lawyers on both sides said that's unlikely to happen.

Jesus Reyes is a typical case.

"Why don't they send me back? I just want to go back," Reyes said in Spanish.

Reyes spoke in an interview last month at the Linn County Jail, where he was held until flooding forced the transfer of prisoners from the Cedar Rapids facility.

Like most of those arrested in the largest single-site workplace raid in U.S. history, Reyes is a native of Guatemala who pleaded guilty of using a false Social Security number to get work at the Agriprocessors packing plant. He expressed anguish over the fate of his eight children, wife and mother, who were counting on the $200 per month he wired home to Guatemala during his three years in Iowa.

After past raids, workers like Reyes were more likely to be deported quickly.

Federal prosecutors won't talk about why they decided to push for jail time in most of the Postville cases, where 389 of the 968 workers at Agriprocessors were detained for at least some period of time. But advocates on both sides of the immigration issue say the decision marks a significant change.

"It's unheard of for that many people to be prosecuted out of one raid," said Natalie Wettstein, legal director for the American Immigration Law Foundation, which works with immigrant-defense lawyers.

Wettstein questioned why the federal government is spending millions of tax dollars to imprison non-violent immigrants whose only crime was using false papers to work.

The cost is about $65 per day per inmate, jail administrators say. That's about $19,700 a day, or about $590,000 a month.

"Is this really commensurate with what these people were doing wrong?" she said. "Does the public really want to spend this kind of resources on this?"

A spokesman for an opposing group says the answer should be yes. "From our perspective, it's a positive shift, because it shows there will be consequences," said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Mehlman, whose group wants tougher enforcement of immigration laws, said he hopes word of the jail sentences spreads in Guatemala and other countries that are sources of illegal immigration.

If no one faced penalties for identity theft, he said, why would anyone worry about breaking the laws? "It would be like the IRS saying, 'We'd like you to pay your taxes, but if you don't, don't worry about it.' "

Several former Agriprocessors workers serving jail time said they'd heard rumors that they wouldn't have to serve the full five months of their sentences. Officials said they probably will be disappointed.

"When you get a federal sentence, five months means five months," said Dan Vondra, an immigration lawyer in Iowa City who represented several of the workers.

Robert Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, agreed. He said some federal prisoners can receive small sentence reductions for good behavior, but those rules only apply to people with sentences longer than a year.

Teig acknowledged that the Postville raid is the raid with the highest percentage of people prosecuted for crimes and sentenced to jail instead of just being deported. But he said previous raids have led to significant numbers of such prosecutions. He specifically cited the 2006 raids at Swift plants in Marshalltown and elsewhere around the country. Criminal charges were pressed against 274 of the 1,297 people seized in those raids.
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YES!!!

YES!!!

YES!!!

SEND THEM A MESSAGE!!!

Illegal immigration and identity theft and buying counterfeit documents must not go unpunished. A get tough policy will work and should be implemented in regions with high concentrations of illegal aliens including visa overstayers.

If no one faced penalties for identity theft, he said, why would anyone worry about breaking the laws? "

You got the above right....He just wanted to be deported so he could come right back the next day....afterall...he has 8 kids to feed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Has no-one down there heard of protection...or even abstanance

He expressed anguish over the fate of his eight children, wife and mother, who were counting on the $200 per month he wired home to Guatemala during his three years in Iowa.

What?? Now that he's doing time after sneaking into this country three years ago, he's worried about his EIGHT kids??

Love it! Go to jail, go directly to jail. Do not pass GO, do not collect welfare benefits.

Originally Posted by AngryTX

He expressed anguish over the fate of his eight children, wife and mother, who were counting on the $200 per month he wired home to Guatemala during his three years in Iowa.

What?? Now that he's doing time after sneaking into this country three years ago, he's worried about his EIGHT kids??

He should have thought about them before he broke our laws. If they were so poor, why in hell would they have EIGHT kids?!?!

Hope is wife was wise enough to put that $7200 to good use so it will keep providing for them while he's in jail and when he gets back home. If not, IT'S NOT OUR PROBLEM!!!!