Thread: Update: Hundreds of arrests predicted at Iowa ICE raid

Postville plant reopens after raid
By TONY LEYS • REGISTER STAFF WRITER • May 13, 2008

Postville, Ia. - The Agriprocessors meatpacking plant appears to be back in business this morning, less than 12 hours after federal and state agents finished an immigration raid there.

More than 100 cars were in the employee parking lot this morning. A company official standing near the entrance was talking on the phone with someone about “today’s chicken kill.â€

Update: Immigration court hearings will begin today
By JENNIFER JACOBS • Register staff • May 13, 2008

Waterloo, Ia. – Lawyers for the Postville detainees fear some may appear in court today before they’ve had a chance to talk to their legal representation.

Court hearings begin at 4 p.m. in makeshift courtrooms being set up on the grounds of the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds in Waterloo.

Lawyers have identified 147 detainees whose families are seeking legal representation, and have given immigration officials the federal legal documents known as G-28s for all 147.


But since 9 a.m., the eight attorneys and six paralegals for the 147 people have been isolated in a trailer.

“They’ve not seen one client,â€

YIPPEEeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

Lawyers seeking access to detained Postville workers
BY JENNIFER JACOBS • jejacobs@dmreg.com • May 13, 2008

Waterloo, Ia. – Lawyers are seeking access this morning to workers who were detained at the Postville meat processing plant, and volunteers are working for the release of several minor-aged workers.

The minor workers all are older teens, around age 17, said Sister Kathy Thill of the House of Mercy in Waterloo, who traveled to Postville to work with the families.


Federal immigration officials have declined to release the teens to anyone but a parent who shows identification, Thill said.

The families told volunteers the names of about a dozen minors, and those names were given to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Some were released and some were not, Thill said.

“I don’t know why,â€

Should they have set up roadblocks to prevent people from leaving town since people knew about it at 5 AM ?

Immigration raid: Town's Hispanics shutter businesses, scatter
By NIGEL DUARA • nduara@dmreg.com • May 13, 2008

Postville, Ia. - The phone calls started at 5 a.m. They carried the same message:

Immigration was coming.

Paul Real, a lay pastor at the Ministerio Hispano, said his phone was ringing off the hook.

"Calls have been flying around," he said Monday morning. "There are rumors everywhere."

Twelve hours later, Hispanic businesses in downtown Postville were shuttered. Locks held the door at El Sabor Latino grocery store and restaurant. Bowls of chips and salsa were abandoned along with a half-empty bottle of Coke.


At the Postville Bakery and Restaurant - which also goes by La Panederia y Pasteleria - a sign in the doorway said, "We will be closed at 11 a.m. today."

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant scattered the Hispanics of Postville. About 400 found their way to St. Bridget's Catholic Church, waiting for information. Some filled out G-28 forms that allow a lawyer to represent their detained children or minors in their care.

A woman who would identify herself only as Judy said she and her husband work at Agriprocessors. The last time she saw him was before his shift Monday, about 5:30 a.m.

"No, I don't know where he is," she said in Spanish.

Judy said she and her husband came from Mexico illegally. Like many others at St. Bridget's, they regard the church as a haven from law enforcement.

Asked whether the church would indeed be a safe place, Sister Mary McCauley of St. Bridget's said, "That is our belief and hope."

"It's a place to get family convened," she said.

The Postville Community School District assembled all its Hispanic students to ensure they each had a parent or caregiver at home.

Superintendent David Strudhoff said those whose parents could be located would be allowed to go home. For the rest, elementary and middle-schoolers were paired with high school students and separated into groups.

Sitting on the floor, surrounded by 12 children, a counselor who declined to be identified tried to determine which children needed to be sent home.

"What's your name? Where do you need to go?" she asked one. To another, "You're safe at the church."

By Monday night, all of the kids at the church had been paired with parents or caregivers.

Care workers brought fruit juice, diapers, Cheetos and animal crackers to St. Bridget's. Alma Gonzalez's 2-year-old, Cristan, munched happily on a plate stocked high with chips.

"We don't know anything right now," she said.

Gonzalez said her husband works on a farm in Monona. She went to the church because she came to this country illegally from Guatemala and thought St. Bridget's would be safe.

Eight months pregnant, she's due to have a girl in June.

Standing outside the Agriprocessors plant, Adolfo Calderon said he tried to put himself in the shoes of someone here illegally.

He has friends who work at the plant, he said, most of whom are in America legally, but he feared for the families who might be separated.

"They shouldn't do this," Calderon said. "I understand it's a legal (issue) and they're trying to do their job, but what happens to these poor families?"

Adolfo Calderon, 15, said his father manages apartments in the town. With the raid, those apartments could be cleared out and his father could be put out of business.

Hidie Roach, a teller at Citizens State Bank in Postville, said the raid gives the town a bad name.

The town needs the packing plant, Roach said. "I think a lot of people will leave."

At St. Bridget's on Monday night, Real, the lay pastor, fielded calls, answered questions and handed out pamphlets advising immigrants of their rights while trying to keep about 400 people clothed, sheltered and fed.

His wife, holding the phone to her ear, said a caller was offering food. Did they need it?

Real, without looking up from his desk, answered quickly.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/p ... /805130405

She was instructed to fill out paperwork that detailed her date of birth and country of origin. She is from Guatemala but said she told investigators that she was from Mexico.

When she’s deported, she said she would rather be taken to Mexico, where it will be easier to reenter America.

Someone may want to tell her it's a different ball game now.
If she's caught again, her kids in Guatemala (who separated that family?!?!) won't be eating for a loooong time.




[quote]The 12 juveniles arrested were all plant employees, Arnold said. Federal customs agents today were still seeking “responsible adultsâ€

Breaking News Blog
Updates on stories we're following at DesMoinesRegister.com

Immigration raid donations
Posted 5/13/2008 12:59 PM CDT on Des Moines Register
Supporters of those arrested have set up a bank account at Veridian Credit Union, with the name Donations Postville. People can deposit money into account No. 5830490, which will go to the families of those detained.

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Updated May 13. 2008 10:18PM
Immigration raid biggest in U.S. history

By Alicia Ebaugh and Jeff Raasch
The Gazette
Alicia.Ebaugh@GazetteCommunications.com
jeff.raasch@gazettecommunications.com

Related Story: Photos from the aftermath of the Postville raid

POSTVILLE - Nearly 400 people have been arrested in what federal officials are now calling the largest single-site immigration raid in United States history.

Of the 390 arrested in a Monday raid at Agriprocessors in Postville, 314 are men and 76 are women. The majority are from Guatemala and Mexico.

Of those arrested, 29 face criminal charges, said Bob Teig, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. The criminal hearings are being held in three makeshift courtrooms set up on the grounds of the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo.

The rest of those arrested face deportation hearings, Teig said. They will be moved this week to locations across the nation — wherever Immigration and Customs Enforcement has room to house them — and appear before immigration judges.

"This is standard procedure for immigration matters," said Tim Counts, spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who confirmed the operation was the largest ever undertaken in U.S. history.

The dozens of agents who entered Agriprocessors at 10 a.m. Monday had 697 arrest warrants for plant employees, officials said at a Tuesday news conference at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cedar Rapids.

"We're not sure how many of those we were looking for are in custody yet. The process will take time," said Claude Arnold, immigration special agent in charge from Bloomington, Minn.

He would not comment on how the agency plans to track down the 307 others wanted on criminal or immigration charges. He declined to release the names of those people.

Officials would not say whether company officials will face legal or financial repercussions, even though the information contained in the application for the search warrant alleges abuse and knowledge of illegal employment by human resources staff, plant supervisors and others.

"We cannot comment on if anyone from management will be prosecuted," Arnold said.

About 50 people, a majority of them women, have been released for humanitarian reasons, mainly to care for children who have no other responsible adults to care for them. A few were released for medical reasons, Arnold said. All will wear electronic monitoring devices on their ankles.

The women who were detained are being held at the Hardin County Jail in Eldora until they can be moved. The men were detained at the National Cattle Congress grounds; they are expected to be processed by tonight and moved to other locations on Homeland Security buses.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa on Tuesday condemned the raid, saying it had received reports that those arrested were not getting proper legal counsel and were being rushed through legal proceedings.

"We are concerned that the sheer size of this raid is likely to result in numerous violations of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the due process rights of all persons in this country," ACLU of Iowa President Ben Stone said in a statement.

In Waterloo, 10 men were the first to face criminal felony charges — of false representation using Social Security numbers and aggravated identity theft — on Tuesday afternoon.

The 10 sat side-by-side inside what is normally the Electric Park Ballroom as they appeared before federal Magistrate Judge Jon Stuart Scoles. They wore headphones to listen to court proceedings via a Spanish interpreter.

They were represented by attorney Stephen Swift of Cedar Rapids, who noted that one worker, Noe Castillo Ordonez, was a juvenile. After the 10-minute court appearance, the men were led away by U.S. marshals.

Scoles set status hearings for the 10 on Tuesday at the Cattle Congress site. Preliminary hearings will be held May 28 in Cedar Rapids.

Chief Judge Linda Reade, who will be presiding in court today, said the 10 would be transported to federally certified jails in Eastern Iowa tonight.

Reade said women facing criminal charges would be the first to appear in court today.

Although officials said they expect no detainees to be housed on Cattle Congress grounds past Thursday, the U.S. General Services Administration has rented the buildings through May 25.

"I can't comment on what it will be used for next week," said Matt Dummermuth, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.

The record-breaking raid came after a months-long investigation into Agriprocessors, the world's largest kosher meatpacking plant. The plant had about 900 workers before the raid.

According to a search warrant application and affidavit dated May 9, federal officials relied on a variety of sources, including former employees and at least one undercover source who wore a wire and became an employee of the plant.

The warrant application refers repeatedly to "Source No. 7," someone the agency trusted and who had assisted immigration agents in previous investigations. The agency compensated the source with rent assistance, cell phone service, living expenses and wage compensation.

According to the search warrant application, the source witnessed a cavalier attitude toward illegal immigrants working at the plant. The source described a training session where new employees giggled as a company employee explained how to fill out paperwork affirming they were legal residents.

Some employees, the informant said, were paid with cash, and those workers wore special colored work hats to denote their status. Other employees were paid with checks that did not bear Agriprocessors' name.

Two minor injuries were reported Monday night at the detention center in Waterloo, Arnold said. One involved a man who ran from agents and injured his leg. He was treated at a hospital and taken back to Estel Hall. A second injury involved an immigration agent who received minor cuts and bruises when he slipped and fell on a stairwell.

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs. ... /1006/news

This is fantastic news!!!

My husband called on his lunch break yesterday and said his legal co-worker, said he heard of this raid and was concerned (not for himself, but for others he knows here who are not legal). My husband misunderstood him and thought he said Idaho.

Makes me feel real good that other places, maybe even here in Oregon will be next......

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