Thread: Postville immigrants file suit, claim abuse

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Updated May 15. 2008 9:07PM
Postville immigrants file suit, claim abuse
By Trish Mehaffey
The Gazette



A federal class action lawsuit filed Thursday by immigrants arrested in the Postville raid allege Agriprocessors acquired false identification for workers, along with numerous allegations of abuse from supervisors.

Antonin Trinidad Candido, Roman Trinidad Candido and Maria del Refugio Masias, all Agriprocessors employees, filed the suit through the Peck Law Firm and Dornan & Lustgarten firm in Omaha, Neb.

The suit alleges the detainees haven't had adequate time for legal services and moving them out of Iowa to various detention centers, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said, would interfere with and effectively destroy the ongoing relationship between detainees and their attorneys.

Detainees who have spoken with attorneys are providing reports of substantial violations by Agriprocessors, including wage, labor and immigration violations, according to the suit. The detainees are immediate release or for a reasonable period of time before being moved out of state to meet with counsel and have confidential communications.

The suit claims Sonia Parras Konrad, a Polk County attorney, interviewed over 50 detainees who told her Agriprocessors: procured false identification for its immigrant employees; withheld money from their paychecks for "immigration fees"; didn't allow employees to use the restroom during 10-hour shifts; didn't compensate employees for overtime; and were physically abused by supervisors.

The suit also has excerpts from an affidavit filed by David M. Hoagland, senior special agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in support of the search warrant issued on Agriprocessors. The alleged violations in the affidavit include:

— Equipment issued to perform work was substandard

— A floor supervisors duct-taped the eyes of a Guatemalan employee and then hit the employee with a meat hook

— Immigrants were paid $5 an hour and after three or four months, bumped up to $6.

The affidavit also contains numerous allegations of violations of the federal racketeering laws including:

— Employee's taxes were deducted and deposited into bank accounts belonging to an unknown person or people.

— An employee transported immigrant employees across state lines to Minnesota to get false state identification cards

— Checks were issued to certain immigrants with an unknown person's name on it and the check would be cashed at another portion of the plant

— A Department of Transportation investigator provided information that a supervisor at the company used an intricate and unlawful scheme to purchase and register a large number of car for resale to the employees and a supervisor forced the employees to buy the cars from him or be fired.

Named in the suit is: United States Immigration Customs Enforcement; Department of Homeland Security; Julie Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Claude Arnold, Immigration and Customs special agent in charge at Postville; Michael Chertoff, secretary of Department of Homeland Security and Michael Mukasey, Attorney General of the United States.


www.gazetteonline.com

Named in the suit is: United States Immigration Customs Enforcement; Department of Homeland Security; Julie Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Claude Arnold, Immigration and Customs special agent in charge at Postville; Michael Chertoff, secretary of Department of Homeland Security and Michael Mukasey, Attorney General of the United States.

On what ground are they being sued for abuse --they RESCUED the detainees.

Why are illegal aliens, in this country illegally, and in custody as the result of criminal behavior, including felonies, allowed to sue the enforcers of OUR LAW for money damages?
Think they can get a huge settlement and legal papers from the federal government?

They claim Agriprocessors abused them--why aren't the illegal aliens suing them?

The odds are that the workers at this plant came from a limited number of places. A class action suit might be successful but if it is I would hope that they use it for investment and not just consume with it. It would cause the loss of an oportunity for wider addvancement within those communities and instead leave the lucky few people "early retired" and the many as badly off as before..

The suit is being organized by the Union of Commercial Food Workers and they want to take money from both the plant owner and the government.

I'm sure the government videotaped everything and did everything by the book. After the gov. gets done with the company, there won't be anything left for the illegals. They were willing conspirators to everything the plant did and need to be deported anyway.

Can they think of any more lame excuses or arguments???

This is why we cannot agree to "comprehensive" reform again (enforcement and amnesty together) for as soon as legal status/amnesty was granted, enforcement would be litigated and ignored into oblivion.

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Call the Senate: NO AgJOBS Amnesty !

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-3192--0-0.html

Detainees allege abuse by company
BY GRANT SCHULTE • gschulte@dmreg.com • May 16, 2008

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Immigrant workers detained during this week’s Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking raid in Postville allege that the company withheld pay for what it called “immigration fees,â€

This lawsuit is an attempt to 'obstruct justice'.

The illegal aliens were co-conspiators and criminal accessories with the company and not 'victims'.