Undercover worker helped immigration agents in Postville
By Jeff Reinitz, Waterloo Courier | Tuesday, May 13, 2008

POSTVILLE — Monday’s immigration raid at Agriprocessors was the result of almost eight months of investigation, according to U.S. Attorney Matt Dummermuth.

The probe included interviews with former illegal workers and an undercover source who landed a job at the plant and sometimes wore a recording device, court records show.

Agents with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Agriprocessors had 833 workers with suspicious Social Security numbers pulling a paycheck in the third quarter of 2007.

All 833 employees were found to have either used invalid Social Security numbers or numbers not their own, said an application ICE agents submitted to secure a search warrant of the facility.

An ICE analysis of the numbers estimated that 76 percent of the 968 workers at Agriprocessors in the fourth quarter of 2007 were using bogus Social Security numbers.

Agents sought criminal complaints and arrest warrants for 697 Agriprocessors employees.

More than 300 were detained as of 2 p.m. Monday, officials reported, and buses continued to roll onto the National Cattle Congress grounds after dark.

About 12 of the search warrant application’s 52 pages detail the efforts of a confidential source to get a job at Agriprocessors and what he saw inside.

Referred to only as Source No. 7, the undercover operative first tried to get hired at the plant in early November without a Social Security card and was turned down.

He then followed a tip that a certain supervisor would hire him without documents. During a meeting at the supervisor’s house, he was told he should “fixâ€