Judge declines to step down from Postville immigration case
By AMY LORENTZEN
Associated Press Writer

DES MOINES - A federal judge has denied a motion asking her to remove herself from the case of a former Agriprocessors Inc. supervisor who is awaiting sentencing on immigration charges.

Martin De La Rosa-Loera appeared in federal court in Cedar Rapids last month and pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors to aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented immigrants.

The 43-year-old was arrested in July, two months after nearly 400 people were arrested during a raid at the kosher meatpacking plant in Postville.

Despite the plea deal, the motion for Chief Judge Linda R. Reade to recuse herself moved forward as De La Rosa-Loera awaits sentencing.

De La Rosa-Loera's attorney, Thomas McQueen, filed court documents questioning Reade's impartiality. He argued that Reade worked with the federal government in making arrangements for fast-track judicial proceedings in Waterloo for hundreds of people arrested in the May 12 raid, and that she presided over the cases.

He also said that Reade defended the government's actions in The New York Times article published May 24 "despite clearly being on notice that related cases were on the horizon."

"Indeed the government has failed to cite one case in which a court publicly commented to the press regarding charges in a criminal case in which disqualification was not found to be warranted," he argued in court documents.

His motion sought to avoid the participation of any judge who was involved in the immigration proceedings related to the raid.

In her order issued Monday, Reade said she was simply performing her official duties as chief judge for the Northern District of Iowa. She said that in his arguments, De La Rosa-Loera repeatedly confuses logistical cooperation with "collusion or involvement in the executive function of pursuing prosecution."

"Defendant has not demonstrated that the undersigned has displayed a deep-seated favoritism or antagonism that would make fair judgment in his case impossible," Reade wrote.

She said the same goes for the comments attributed to her by the newspaper. According to court documents, she said prosecutors "have tried to be fair in their charging" and that the immigration lawyers did "not understand the federal criminal process as it relates to immigration charges."

Her comments to the reporter, Reade said, were in response to a question about immigration lawyers' criticisms about the proceedings.

"The court merely answered the reporter's questions about the federal criminal process," Reade wrote, noting that De La Rosa-Loera's case wasn't pending at the time of her comments. "The two statements attributed to the undersigned were isolated and a far cry from the actions and statements of judges in the cases that defendant cites in support of the motion."

She said she will go forward with sentencing De La Rosa-Loera.

His attorney declined to comment Reade's ruling.

Federal officials said De La Rosa-Loera, who supervised four departments at Agriprocessors, assisted others in harboring illegal immigrants "while knowing and recklessly disregarding the fact that "the workers were in the country illegally."

They said that about two weeks before the raid, De La Rosa-Loera told undocumented workers they could no longer work at the plant because their Social Security numbers were bad and they needed new documents. Later, he allegedly told the employees they could return to work using the same names they'd previously used, officials said.

A sentencing date hasn't been scheduled. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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