Hundreds arrested in Iowa immigration raid

[flashl]

Source: Cleveland (AP)

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Federal immigration agents raided a northeastern Iowa meat processing plant Monday, arresting more than 300 people and housing many of them at a converted fairgrounds.

The raid of the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville was the largest in state history and had been planned for months, said U.S. Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth.

The raid, one of several conducted at meat-processing plants around the country in recent years, was aimed at seeking evidence of identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers and people who are in the country illegally, ICE spokesman Tim Counts said.

...

Agriprocessors, the world's largest kosher meatpacking plant, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/national-104/1210622979200600.xml&storylist=topstories

[NightWatcher]

1. gee, no one saw this coming

isnt that the same site from this story

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3262742

[flashl]

2. Appears to be. nt

[barbtries]

13. that's gotta be it

i really don't like the direction this country's moving in.

[madrchsod]

3. shame these people are without jobs but

this company is one of the worse places to work in this industry...

just google "Agriprocessors Inc" and read about what the scum bag owners do...

[jwirr]

4. Yes, the safety rules violations alone makes it one of those places

that no one wants to work at - except illegals. The owners should be fined as well since they encourage this so they will not have to pay benefits. My brother worked in another plant in Iowa and it was that way there also. He was pushed out of his job but only after his back and hands were unusable.

[Ian David]

6. See also: New Kosher certification to require environmental and corporate responsibility

New Kosher certification to require environmental and corporate responsibility
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x2407

[Critters2]

17. This would put Agriprocessors out of business!

And may it come soon!

[jmowreader]

63. All the hits are from PETA and similar sites

[Ian David]

5. Kosher meatpacking? Oy!

Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to arrest the 20 or so CEOs most responsible for HIRING undocumented workers than it is to arrest the millions of undocumented workers themselves?

[Posteritatis]

9. Doesn't play as well at the polls. (nt)

[EFerrari]

10. If the polls really mattered, it would. It doesn't translate into

campaign contributions, if you ask me.

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. One of this area's biggest companies that thrives due to undocumented

workers is owned by a guy who is hosting a fundraiser for a republican running for Congress (against a sitting Dem). The fundraiser will feature our pResident. It's his second visit to our state this month.

So you bet it's convenient to ignore the workers and the labor law violations and immigration law violations. In this instance, that all translates into big money for our local GOP, with dipshit as the draw.

[EFerrari]

38. Right. It's a racket. And they get people all riled up about the wrong target

so no one will see the real source of corruption and disempowerment.

[barbtries]

14. there ya go

but they aren't going to do that.

[NYVet]

20. Arrest them all

Both the CEOs and the illegal aliens.

Both are breaking the law and both need to be punished for it.




Edit for spelling

[coalition_unwilling]

52. Everyone is guilty of something. Just because that is true does not

mean that everyone should be arrested.

By the way, entry into the United States without proper documentation is a CIVIL offense, not a CRIMINAL offense. Whereas, hiring undocumented workers is a CRIMINAL offense, not a CIVIL offense.

[NYVet]

59. Not according to U.S. Code : Title 8 : Section 1325

In Section 1325, it gives the punishment for violating the law as follows.



For the first commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.



Last time I checked, civil offenses were not punishable by jail time.

[coalition_unwilling]

62. That's funny. If it were such a big CRIMINAL offense, one would

expect to see trials (with habeas corpus and other rights of due process), rather than the ADMINISTRATIVE (aka CIVIL) hearings that actually do occur daily before immigration judges.

Just because a law is on the book does not ipso facto make that law meaningful.

[Ian David]

56. Being an illegal immigrant is a civil infraction, on the same criminal level as a parking ticket.

Are you an illegal driver who needs to be arrested?

[NYVet]

60. Never gotten a parking ticket.

But what does my driving record have to do with the fact that we have people violating US law to come here while other people obey the law and wait their turn?

[Ian David]

64. Many of them are refugees fleeing conditions caused by our own government's policies. n/t

[NYVet]

65. So our policies should be in the best interests of other countries and not our own? n/t

[Ian David]

66. No. Our policies are hurting our country AND theirs. And if you set fire to someone's boat..

... you really don't have the moral high ground when they wash ashore on your beach.

[Ian David]

7. See also: New Kosher certification to require environmental and corporate responsibility

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=367x2407

[mtf80123]

8. yeah.... good luck with that

Wasn't it about 7 years ago the M.E Oil Cartel Nations were seeking assurances from the U.S. to continue their payments whether or not we stopped importing their blood payments?

Hey Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and everyone else in that region... why don't you start PAYING us for your protection?

Better yet, lets get rid of every single RePuke in the Congress and Senate who support these Oil Cartels and force them to fight hand-to-hand like our soldiers are doing?

Your time has come RePukes... Your inaction over these last 30 years demands your servitude to the people of our nation.

[EFerrari]

11. Bets on how many US citizens and legal residents were picked up?

Five? Ten?

[flashl]

21. And, how many orphans created? Foster care systems are already overflowing.

Mass. Governor's response to earlier raids: "There are families affected, there are children affected." Patrick wants detainees from immigration raid kept in Mass

[barb162]

29. How are there orphans? Are their parents being killed?

Puhleeze.

[EFerrari]

36. If your parents don't come home from work and no one knows

where they are, that makes you an orphan for all purposes.

So, you get swept up by CPS and placed somewhere and if you're lucky, you have a relative who isn't afraid to ask someone in authority where you are. Or, you're not lucky.

That's what these sweeps do. Same with elderly people.

[flashl]

40. One legal definition used in the USA

is someone bereft through "death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents".

[GetTheRightVote]

12. Being from the midwest all I can say is Hurray and it is about time

Thank God they finally did it after all this time and all the jobs stolen in the wake of these illegals.
I am almost crying to hear this great news. Probably they will find that these workers are all illegals.
I have been waiting for at least a decade to hear or see something like this action taken.

So many of my friends and neighbors lost their jobs, medical, pensions and unions were destroyed behind
the hiring of these type of workers as well as the inspection process and quality of the meat which is all
bad compared to the past system that US citizen/workers worked with and on. In the mid-western states these
were good paying jobs which went down to nothing, at least not jobs with wages you could live on even in the
low cost states of this area of the nation.

Small towns and cities in these states went down to nothing, young people leaving due to no jobs either at all or worth working for livable wages. I am extremely glad to see that this nation is finally defending the rights of the United States Citizen over corporations and their illegal workers. I am dancing in my dining room over these events and happily as well.

[Hardrada]

15. I agree. There was a book about Postville but I am not sure

it covered the bad working conditions and the other unfortunate social results.

[Critters2]

16. I used to live in Wright County, home of DeCoster "Farms"

Hundreds of undocumented workers were employed there, under terrible working conditions. But DeCoster is a good friend of Terry Branstad and other Repugs. So, no raids there! If employers like these were forced to pay a fair wage and treat workers decently, the quality of life in these communities would improve considerably!!

[Hardrada]

18. This actually goes back quite far since I think Hormel

in Minnesota used immigrant labor also in the 1950's or early Sixties. Not much happened to them from the authorities but there were some big strikes.

[michreject]

25. And I haven't eaten any Hormel products since...nt

[earth mom]

19. I'm for the American worker, but they need to punish the businesses NOT the people. nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. So taking away the immigrants reduces the population to

zero?

Is that what you want?

And if you think that the employers who hire these undocumented are going to magically begin hiring white Americans now, you are delusional. Americans like their beef at the existing price.

[joeglow3]

31. Do you support outsourcing of jobs???

I have never understood this position of our party. We use the logic to support illegal immigration, but then turn around and bash outsourcing, when it is the EXACT SAME THING (except we don't get stuck with increased social, school and prison costs).

I am always glad to see this. My father is one of those people who happily works a job that "no American wants to work (drywall)."

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. I support human beings being treated humanely

Separating families is not humane.

I also know that if I lived in Central America and the only way I could feed my family was to sneak across the US border to work, I would do so in a heartbeat.

Want to solve this problem? Repair the damage to the Central American economy caused by NAFTA and CAFTA, and penalize employers who not only hire undocumented workers, but also go south of the border and recruit them.

Oh and also be prepared to pay a lot more for your food.

Good luck to your father. My friend is a drywall contractor who was earning 6 figures until he was priced out of business by competing contractors who were paying undocumented workers slave wages. He is now driving a truck. His business went bankrupt.

[Duke Newcombe]

57. It's not a 100% solution...so give up?

No one argues that immigration raids will reduce the level of illegal immigrants to zero. It will however discourage them from certain employers and certain areas.

But I'll agree with one thing--the employers who hire them should be led off on the same bus to jail.

Then, maybe then, they'll hire qualified unemployed people, RIGHT HERE. All kinds of folks--not just whites (I don't know where you got that from). I'd pay $.50 cents more for my package of hot dogs, thank you.

This is one issue that we Democrats are are the wrong side of, from a labor perspective, if not the legal and border sovereignty perspective.

Duke

[LanternWaste]

24. the jobs will get outsourced.

Nice dance. Short lived, but nice...

The jobs and companies will be outsourced if cheap labor is not abundant in the immediate area. Your friends will remain out of work, and the unions and pensions will remain destroyed. Inspection process and quality of meat will decline even further for cost cutting reasons. Young people will continue to emigrate out of the small, mid-west towns.

Dancing to the tune of a dirge...

[barnel]

26. plant was a net drain, wages below minimum wage, pensions? -> LOL

almakee county was carrying this plant BIG time with social services - Iowa was on net, subsidizing kosher food

it was also a meth source - get your identity stolen? enjoy the next year trying to straighten it out.....if you can

whats really obnoxious, is that the owners are Hasidic Jews (ultra orthodox), meaning conspicuous pious appearence and dress

most iowans would say 'ok, whatever', but combine the very conspicuos and pious observence of Jewish law, juxtaposed with *utter disregard for Iowa law, and effects on Iowans* and you've got a real problem

[LanternWaste]

35. Moon-walking to the tune of a dirge...

Moon-walking to the tune of a dirge...

[Hardrada]

39. Those folks were a law unto themselves. The book on Postville

(by a non-Orthodox Jew) is excellent on this subject.

[High Plains]

41. Are you making this stuff up?

I read the newspaper article in the OP. I didn't see anything about wages, welfare payments, or meth.

Where are you getting this information?

[barnel]

43. read article

"I didn't see anything about wages, welfare payments, or meth"

meth

"
Last November, the search warrant said, ICE agents interviewed a former Agriprocessors supervisor who said some employees were running a methamphetamine lab in the plant and were bringing weapons to work."

I didnt say 'welfare' i said 'social services' meaning anything the worker uses beyond their taxes paid, when paid BELOW MINIMUM WAGE (which is of course, illegal), and you're bringing in someone who wasnt here(again, illegally), you're darned right there's going to be a net county losss on social services

"
Another plant worker told federal officials that undocumented workers were paid $5 an hour for their first few months before receiving a pay increase to $6 per hour. The minimum wage in Iowa is $7.25 an hour"

worker abuse
"Another source alleged worker abuse, officials said in the warrant. In one case, a supervisor covered the eyes of an employee with duct tape and struck him with a meat hook."

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080513/NEWS/805130408/1001

you walk around in devout religious clothes while pulling this crap, breaking every law there is, yeah, people are going to notice the arrogance of it

[High Plains]

51. Well, shut my mouf. The feds indeed allege this stuff.

Here's another story about it from a Jewish news agency: http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/108541.html

Of course, I don't believe everything I read in an affidavit, either. Time will tell.

[LeftHander]

28. Wrong. Centralized Overscaled food processing caused this....

Those small towns were outgrown by the processing plant owners greed. Rather than maintain sustainable operations they bought into the illusion of economy of scale. If you blow anything up too much it will eventually become unstable and pop.

Here the demand so big, margins so small and urbanization of once rural areas resulted in these plants requiring more and more workers. Numbers that could not be satisfied by the local workforce...many of who would rather not work in the industry.

So don't point your fingers at cheap labor. Point them at the local communities for allowing these behemoths to grow out of control in their small communities and point to our cultures demand for cheap, cheap, cheap...

[barb162]

30. It is about time. Americans need jobs.

Let the corporations hire Americans and let's get the illegals out of this country and let their countries of origin pay for their costs of sending them back to their homelands. And fine these damned corporations for hiring these illegals instead of Americans. I want to see big, big fines and jail time for these executives who hire illegals.

[High Plains]

33. Well, there are apparently some openings now in Iowa.

Everybody who wants to be a low-paid, non-union slaughterhouse worker, take heed!

[EFerrari]

44. And I'd like to see the United States stop sabotaging democracy

in Latin America in favor of their corporate cronies.

Mexico voted for the PROGRESSIVE last time. But BushCo made sure he wasn't seated. Instead of the people's choice, there's a nice rich conservative in office now who will continue to play ball and continue to force people out of their homes and north.

[Megahurtz]

47. I'd like to see that too

but guess what, it's not our fault that they're doing this, and regular Americans should not be taking a back seat and suffering for it and that is what is happening.

[flashl]

49. Our as in US citizens. Think again ...

How To Not Hire An American - MUST SEE VIDEO

Our goal is clearly NOT TO FIND a qualified and interested U.S. worker.

It's on video, believe it or not, and even presented as a selling point to peddle their services by Cohen & Grigsby Law Firm. That's right, this group of attorneys put an entire seminar on how to screw over the American worker on YouTube. Imagine that, a seminar from lawyers on how to make sure one doesn't have to hire an American worker!

In the video attorneys explain how they assist employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified applicants, and how they disqualify even the most qualified Americans in order to secure green cards for H-1b workers.

[Megahurtz]

50. OMFG.

That is shockingly disgusting. Unbelievable!

I cannot believe that this shit goes on unregulated.

Sometimes I think that this Country might be too far gone to turn around. Maybe it's time to expatriate.

[Megahurtz]

46. Agreed!

Our Unions have been destroyed and Americans have been fucked again and again over this problem.

[coalition_unwilling]

53. "Let's get the illegals out of this country" - hmm, there are some

who would say that all of European ancestry are here illegally.

Beyond that, you do realize you are referring to human beings as "illegals," right? Last time I checked it was not illegal to be a human being. But seeing many comments like this on this thread is enough almost to drive me out of the Democratic Party once and for all and move firmly into the Democratic Socialist orbit for good.

[Duke Newcombe]

58. Let me understand...

I'm hoping you're not just pulling our legs here. You don't know "illegals" means illegal aliens/"undocumented immigrants" ?

The whole "it's not illegal to be a human being" meme is mere sophistry.

Duke

[coalition_unwilling]

61. "Illegals" denotes and connotes. Undocumented status is a

civil violation, NOT a CRIMINAL violation. So calling undocumented workers "illegals" is itself an act of sophistry, imho, altho it's nice to see a DU'er who uses the word "sophistry" correctly.

[EFerrari]

37. That's truly disgusting.

[Dreamer Tatum]

42. I don't fault illegals for taking jobs there

Wherever you are, you have to work.

I do, however, fault the hiring managers, the people above them, and anyone else who had
access to the fact that ineligible workers were being hired.

Any fines levied against the companies should go to compensate illegals who lost jobs
they qualified for and performed under tacit approval from management.

Know what? Screw fines. For each illegal found working at a plant, subtract 1,000 shares of
restricted stock or options owned by management, starting with the options most in the money.
Sell that equity and compensate the illegals and the legal infrastructure required to
support the process.

I don't think illegals have a right to work in this country UNTIL SOMEONE HIRES THEM. Then they
do have rights.

[EFerrari]

45. It goes much higher up than even that.

Just like torture wasn't a few bad apples, hiring undocumented workers is not a few bad companies.

It is the implicit policy of this country set by the real powerholders. And ALL workers suffer.

[Megahurtz]

48. I hear ya. n/t

[canadianbeaver]

54. Hold off on celebrating......just yet......

Until the CEO's and others in the Corp. are hauled off with the illegals....you should not be hootin and hollerin' .....if all they do is take away the workers....the medical, pensions, wages,unions etc will stay the same...and you and your neighbors will still be in the same boat....but I personally feel your joy is misplaced at this time, IMO.....

[pegleg]

67. thank you for your stand. nt

[Winterblues]

23. Wonder if any of the Corporation heads were arrested as well?

They hired these people and if they are in fact illegal than the hiring of them is as well.

[Lost4words]

27. little or no chance of that, you can bet!

8643

[BeHereNow]

55. The new draft- arrest them illegals and offer them a chance to enlist!

Yeah! That's the ticket!
The ones who can't serve can be housed in the new
Halliburton camps!
Win-win for all the stockholders in this filthy criminal KKKabal.

BHN