Whitaker's role in 2006 immigration raid foreshadowed aggressive stance as acting attorney general
Source: Washington Post
Whitaker’s role in 2006 immigration raid foreshadowed aggressive stance as acting attorney general
By Michael Kranish December 29 at 5:42 PM
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — Matthew G. Whitaker was in his third year as U.S. attorney in Iowa when he learned that hundreds of undocumented immigrants might be working at a meat-processing facility in Marshalltown, an hour’s drive from his Des Moines office. Whitaker, declaring he was “shocked,” said he decided to take action.
What followed became one of the highest-profile and most controversial actions of Whitaker’s five-year career as a prosecutor. Federal agents in 2006 raided the plant, arresting nearly 100 workers, resulting in some being deported, immigrant advocates said. Whitaker brought charges of harboring undocumented immigrants against a company personnel manager and a union vice president. One case resulted in probation and the other was dismissed, according to court records and interviews.
Whitaker’s aggressive actions foreshadowed the role he is now playing at the highest levels of the Trump administration. While attorney general nominee William P. Barr waits for his Senate confirmation hearing, Whitaker is using his remaining time at the helm of the Justice Department to promote President Trump’s hard-line immigration policies.
As acting attorney general, he u nveiled a new rule making it harder for immigrants to seek asylum. Earlier this month, Whitaker delivered a blistering speech in Austin praising the border crackdown and declaring that “massive illegal immigration makes all of us less safe.” Whitaker touted the administration’s effort to end what he called “President Obama’s unlawful DACA program,” which allows undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children to remain under certain conditions.
To many in this city of 27,000, Whitaker’s embrace of immigration crackdowns is misguided. The 2006 raid did not bring more security to their community, they said, but rather upended a community in urgent need of workers for local pork-producing facilities and other companies.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whitakers-role-in-2006-immigration-raid-foreshadowed-aggressive-stance-as-acting-attorney-general/2018/12/29/6836395e-f4e0-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html
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