Back in May, the kosher meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa, was raided by federal agents, seeking illegal immigrants. The Washington Post story described it this way: "Antonio Escobedo ran to get his wife Monday when he saw a helicopter circling overhead and immigration agents approaching the meatpacking plant where they both work.

The couple hid for hours inside the plant before obtaining refuge in the pews and hall at St. Bridget's Catholic Church, where hundreds of other Guatemalan and Mexican families gathered, hoping to avoid arrest. ... [The] raid on the Agriprocessors plant, in which 389 immigrants were arrested and many held at a cattle exhibit hall, was the ... largest crackdown on illegal workers at a single site. It has upended this tree-lined community, which calls itself 'Hometown to the World.'"

The effects of the raid still continue for families affected by the raid and others within the larger community. The Rev. Gary Catterson, pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Postville, located in the John Knox Presbytery, noted, "Sadly our Guatemalan congregation is gone. Most of the leaders were caught up during the sweep. Those left attempted to keep it going, but were not able to do so."

Much of the direct relief assistance for those affected by the raid is taking place at St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Postville, but Catterson's congregation is also helping out. Community Presbyterian has provided volunteers at the rectory and the session has voted to contribute $5,000 from its endowment fund, Catterson said. "We have had a collection of food taken for the food shelf as well," he added.

Contributions to the Hispanic Ministries Fund in Postville can be sent to Box 269, Postville, IA 52162. Catterson said that Community Presbyterian will also accept checks made out to Hispanic Ministries Fund and mailed to the church at Box 8, Postville, IA 52162.

from Keeping in Touch, an e-newsletter for ministry partners in the Synod of Lakes and Prairies.

Here is a press release from the American Immigration Lawyers Association on the improper and unconstitutional collusion that very clearly seems to have occurred in the criminal trials/deportation proceedings that were perpetrated on the Postville workers. I would ask you to view this not just as a press release from an "advocacy group" but as an alarm rung by an extremely responsible and conscientious group of ethical lawyers. The most fundamental constitutional rights are being stolen from thousands of people right now. Whatever the motivation of the current national administration may or may not be; whatever the people in charge of the federal courts in Iowa may or may not have been thinking; the Postville trials were "fixed."

Whether US citizens love foreign workers or hate them, we all should be zealous to defend the protections that our constitution gives us against the tyranny of absolute government power. One set of protections lies in the right of due process of law; another in the right to competent counsel in criminal proceedings; and another, which safeguards the other two, in the independence of the judiciary from the executive branch. All of these protections appear to have been denied the defendants in the Postville trials. This must not be accepted as "business as usual" in the prosecution of undocumented aliens. We must demand that these convictions be overturned and all their collateral consequences (starting with the imprisonment and removal orders).

Jonathan Robert Nelson
Elder, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York CityAttorney at Law (and an active member of Presbyterians for Just Immigration)

Cite as "AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 08073161 (posted Jul. 31, 2008)"

Thursday, July 31, 2008

CONTACT: George Tzamaras, 202-507-7649, gtzamaras@aila.org

WASHINGTON, DC - As more and more information about the planning, execution and aftermath of the Postville, Iowa raid on the Agriprocessors facility comes to light, it has become increasingly apparent that this was a travesty of justice. And this travesty could not have occurred without the full complicity of the federal district court for the northern district of Iowa. From the beginning, the actions of the people that our system relies on to preserve justice were literally scripted to result in convictions and deportations.

A "Handbook" was provided by the court to the court-appointed counsel for the detainees that included not only a pre-written "script" for the judge, but extensive waivers of rights that government officials, in Congressional testimony just last week, said had been followed. The "Handbook," released by the ACLU today, is in essence a lawyer's guide to how to get your client convicted and deported. The scripts the judicial officers were provided, which included predetermined rulings on such fundamental matters as detention determinations, strongly suggest improper interference with the judicial process by the prosecuting arm of the government.

According to AILA President Charles Kuck, "This 'Handbook' illustrates that railroad justice was the rule of the day, and that the Iowa federal district court was driving the train, fatally compromising its own integrity as an independent branch of government. AILA is shocked and appalled by this collusion between prosecutor and judge."

On May 12, 2008, federal immigration agents, with full military-like force, descended on nearly 400 workers who toiled in reportedly intolerable conditions at the Agriprocessors meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa. The government herded them into the National Cattle Congress where, in makeshift federal courtrooms, it bypassed the usual immigration courts procedures and instead mass-processed the defendants, mostly uneducated Guatemalan farmers, through a federal court crimination conviction and deportation assembly line in a matter of days. The government piled on excessive criminal charges through an "exploding plea bargain" (sign the deal within 7 days of arrest or face maximum prosecution with 2-year mandatory minimum sentences) which required detainees to forfeit all possible immigration relief.

Most are now serving 5-month federal prison terms which will be followed by immediate deportation. As vividly described by Professor Erik Camayd-Freixas in his essay “Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in U.S. History: A Personal Account,” the workers were shackled in groups of 10, assembled and, like the livestock prepared for slaughter at Agriprocessors, they were packaged, convicted, and ordered deported. Shockingly, many of the workers appear not to have understood they were pleading to identity theft but thought they were pleading guilty to having worked in the U.S. without proper documentation-a civil violation. Indeed, first hand accounts and press reports raise serious questions as to whether many of the defendants were even guilty of identity theft, as charged.

See the New York Times report on Prof. Camayd-Freixas’ essay >>

AILA Vice-President David Leopold, who presented testimony about the Postville raid in a Congressional hearing last week, stated, "The entire assembly line, cookie cutter conviction system implemented in Postville is a culmination of months of overreaching and police-state-like tactics by the federal government. Postville is yet another example of this administration's total disregard for the rule of law and, indeed, their contempt for democracy and the principles which have made this country great. To shackle, process and convict poor uneducated workers, and, at the same time, insist their lawyers follow a 'How to Convict and Deport Your Client Handbook,' courtesy of the U.S. Attorney's Office and U.S. District Court, works a profound travesty of justice."

The Postville raid and conviction scheme raises deep and disturbing legal and ethical questions about the propriety of the legal process used, the involvement of the Court, and legitimacy of the convictions. "AILA demands an immediate and comprehensive investigation of the fast-tracking system used by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Court to criminalize the workers at the Cattle Congress in Iowa so that the legitimacy of their convictions may be appropriately assessed and remedied," Kuck concluded.
 

The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members. For more information call George Tzamaras at 202-507-7649 or Annie Wilson at 202-507-7653.

Jonathan Nelson also points us to an August 1 editorial in the New York Times, saying “I've never seen an angrier NY Times editorial than the one that follows.”

It begins:

‘The Jungle,’ Again

A story from the upside-down world of immigration and labor:

A slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, develops an ugly reputation for abusing animals and workers. Reports of dirty, dangerous conditions at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant accumulate for years, told by workers, union organizers, immigrant advocates and government investigators. A videotape by an animal-rights group shows workers pulling the windpipes out of living cows. A woman with a deformed hand tells a reporter of cutting meat for 12 hours a day, six days a week, for wages that labor experts call the lowest in the industry. This year, federal investigators amass evidence of rampant illegal hiring at the plant, which has been called “a kosher ‘Jungle.’ ”

The harsh prosecution at Postville is an odd and cruel shift for the Bush administration, which for years had voiced compassion for exploited workers and insisted that immigration had to be fixed comprehensively or not at all.

Now it has abandoned mercy and proportionality. It has devised new and harsher traps, as in Postville, to prosecute the weak and the poor. It has increased the fear and desperation of workers who are irresistible to bottom-feeding businesses precisely because they are fearful and desperate. By treating illegal low-wage workers as a de facto criminal class, the government is trying to inflate the menace they pose to a level that justifies its rabid efforts to capture and punish them. That is a fraudulent exercise, and a national disgrace.

The full editorial >>

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