Thread: Supervisors at raided meatpacking plant arrested

AGRIPROCESSORS SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN AND THE OWNERS SHOULD GO TO PRISON. SOMETHING IS FISHY IF THEY ARE JUST ARRESTING THE EMPLOYEES.

Originally Posted by redpony353

AGRIPROCESSORS SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN AND THE OWNERS SHOULD GO TO PRISON. SOMETHING IS FISHY IF THEY ARE JUST ARRESTING THE EMPLOYEES.

As much as I want to see that plant closed and the owners, etc. in prison, there really isn't anything unusual about how they are conducting this investigation.

Everything in life starts from the bottom up and it's SOP to get to the big fish through the minnows.

This is far from over.

THAT MAKES SENSE AZWREATH. I CERTAINLY HOPE WE SEE THE OWNER GO TO PRISON AND THAT AWFUL PLACE SHUT DOWN.

...and aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identification.

It's a nice change to see the 'aiding and abetting' included in the formal charges. Hopefully, this will become more commonplace in the future.

Thanks ICE.

Meat plant supervisors face document charges
By GRANT SCHULTE • gschulte@dmreg.com • July 4, 2008

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Two supervisors at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville were arrested Thursday on allegations that they helped illegal immigrant workers hide behind bogus Social Security and resident alien cards, including some that were bought in Des Moines.

Immigration agents apprehended Martin De La Rosa-Loera and Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza in a follow-up sweep through the meat-processing plant, according to a federal complaint unsealed after the arrests.


The men were driven to initial court hearings in Cedar Rapids, said Bob Teig, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

Authorities were still searching for a third man, Hosam Amara, who was last known to live in Postville. Teig said Amara was a plant employee, but his exact position was unavailable.

The arrests come seven weeks after federal agents stormed the plant and detained 389 immigrant workers in the largest single-site immigration raid in American history. A federal affidavit released after the May 12 raid suggested that some plant managers abused workers and knew that many of the workers were in the country illegally. Teig said the investigation remains open.

De La Rosa-Loera and Guerrero-Espinoza work as plant supervisors, and each oversees four departments, according to the complaints. Both were charged with aiding the use of fraudulent identity documents and encouraging aliens to reside illegally in the United States. Guerrero-Espinoza also faces one count of aiding and abetting identity theft. Aiding identity theft carries a mandatory two-year prison sentence.

The complaint alleges that two weeks before the raid, De La Rosa-Loera told several workers that they could no longer work at the plant because their Social Security numbers were bad.

One undocumented worker - identified in the complaint as "Source 3" - told a federal grand jury in June that five workers then traveled to Des Moines to buy fake identification papers. De La Rosa-Loera, 43, allegedly told the workers several days later that it was all right to return to work and did not ask to see their new identification papers.

De La Rosa-Loera oversaw the plant's poultry kill department, according to the complaint.

Guerrero-Espinoza, who supervised the beef kill department, allegedly told a group of employees a few days before the raid that they needed new identification papers and Social Security numbers to stay employed. The 35-year-old supervisor allegedly asked workers for photographs and $200 to $220 for new documents.

Later, according to the complaint, Guerrero-Espinoza told the employees that they could return to work.

The new arrests reflect a growing practice by federal immigration authorities, said Marshalltown immigration lawyer Chris Clausen.

Clausen - who represented dozens of detained workers from Agriprocessors - said federal agents are increasingly using statements from immigrant workers to charge the managers who harbor them. Clausen also was a lawyer for Chris Lamb, a human resouces manager arrested after the Swift & Co. packing plant raid in Marshalltown in 2006.

"We're going to see a lot more of this," Clausen said. "Things are changing in that (federal agents) are going to start going after employers more aggressively."

De La Rosa-Loera and Guerrero-Espinoza were in the custody of U.S. marshals, with detention hearings scheduled for Monday in Cedar Rapids.

Teig said many of the 304 convicted immigrants have been serving five-month prison sentences at the Federal Correctional Complex in Oakdale, La..

The rest of the detainees were either released for humanitarian reasons or sent to separate administrative courts for removal hearings.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/p ... /807040365

In the days before the raid, the workers said, according to the complaint, Guerrero told them in a meeting that "they needed new IDs and Social Security numbers to continue working at the company." Guerrero collected $200 and a photograph from each worker, promising to provide new documents, the complaint says.

Guerrero was charging $200 to get illegal aliens for new id's and Social Security numbers?! I wonder where those id's were being made. IS GUERRERO LEGAL?! I hope he goes to prison for a long time. If he is illegal he should do time and then get deported for life!

Originally Posted by redpony353

AGRIPROCESSORS SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN AND THE OWNERS SHOULD GO TO PRISON. SOMETHING IS FISHY IF THEY ARE JUST ARRESTING THE EMPLOYEES.

I'll say what I said a day or so after this all started in an earlier "breaking news" thread...

This whole operation has east coast MAFIA written all over it!!!

You had a Rabbi who suddenly starts singing, "I didn't know! I never knew", while being practically in charge. (You see a few folks like these in the employ of the Mafia as a PR legitimizing and defensive front).

You had a landlord and educational crook providing leases to the equivalent of foreign scabs...(haven't heard a word about him since...)

You had mention of two Ukranians - many Russians, Georgians and Ukranian in various regions throughout the states are involved in Mafia units. (Haven't hear a word about them since...)

You had a ring of lawyers and law offices nationwide cycling visa immigrants through the company - only for those immigrants to disappear a year or two later in various cities nationwide - whereabouts currently unknown.

The entire town top to bottom was literally taken over by this operation with the locals literally locked out of the jobs and constantly harrassed...

Anyone wanting promotion in this company didn't get it by merit - but by favors either as a victim - or as a conspirator.

...yet all we get are a couple low-line supervisory types who might be illegals themselves?

Give me a freaking break...

Come on ICE...Come on FBI. Try harder!!!