Legal News Headlines

 
Copyright 2008 The Gazette

 Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

 May 14, 2008 Wednesday

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS

ACC-NO: 20080514-CR-Immigration-raid-biggest-in-U-S-history-0514

LENGTH: 1023 words

BYLINE: Alicia Ebaugh and Jeff Raasch, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

BODY: 

May 14--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.

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