Iowa, U.S. gripped by triail of historic immigrant raid
Iowa, U.S. gripped by trial in wake of historic immigrant raid
Updated 6m ago
By Grant Schulte, USA TODAY
DES MOINES — The man who managed a once-dominant kosher meat empire heads to trial Tuesday to face allegations involving what U.S. Attorney Matt Dummermuth describes as the largest single-site immigration raid in United States history.
The trial, in which Sholom Rubashkin will challenge 91 fraud-related charges, marks the latest turn in a case that dealt a blow to the northeastern Iowa town of Postville and stoked the national debate over immigration. Publicity surrounding the case has been so intense that the trial was moved from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Sioux Falls, S.D.
The 22-year-old plant, Agriprocessors, which had grown into the nation's largest kosher meat supplier under the Rubashkin family, had become Postville's largest employer, attracting a blend of New York rabbis, immigrant workers and longtime Iowans.
The trial's outcome "will affect our community, especially the Jewish community, quite a lot," said Paul Ouderkirk, pastor at St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Postville.
Prosecutors also have charged Rubashkin with 72 immigration-related counts for his alleged role in a plan to hire illegal workers, according to federal court documents.
A second trial on those charges is expected to begin a week after the first concludes, Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan said in a memo.
Rubashkin was a top executive at Agriprocessors when agents raided the business in May 2008. Court documents show 389 illegal immigrants were arrested and most were deported.
Prosecutors will present evidence that Rubashkin ordered employees to create fake invoices so he could obtain advances on a revolving bank loan, Deegan wrote in court papers.
Rubashkin was supposed to repay the bank, but is alleged to have diverted the payments to keep the money.
"By diverting the payments, the defendant was, in effect, stealing the bank's collateral and then lying to the bank about it," Deegan wrote.
Defense lawyer Guy Cook, of Des Moines, has said his client denies all of the charges.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... Iowa_N.htm
