Hundreds Arrested In Immigration Raid At Iowa Plant

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) -- Federal immigration agents on Monday arrested more than 300 people in Postville during a raid at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant.

The raid by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was the largest in Iowa history, said Matt M. Dummermuth, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.

Dummermuth said the raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in northeast Iowa came after months of planning, beginning in October 2007. Federal agents were helped by state and local police.

Authorities said more than 300 workers were arrested and charged with immigration violations.

''Can't speculate on if that number will go up,'' said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of ICE's office in Bloomington, Minn. ''We'll have more information on that tomorrow.''

Of those arrested, 44 were released for humanitarian reasons, primarily because they must care for children. Those released were ordered to report to court later.

The detainees were held in local jails or driven by bus about 75 miles to the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds in Waterloo. Federal authorities previously leased the fairgrounds and have turned it into a secure center.

People arrested will be fed three meals a day, plus an evening snack, Arnold said. All those taken to the fairgrounds should be moved to other sites by Thursday.

Authorities arrived at the Agriprocessors plant about 10 a.m. and presented company officials with search warrants. Agents asked to speak with all the employees, and plant officials cooperated and shut down their operations.

Some have criticized a December 2006 immigration raid at a Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Marshalltown, part of a larger action in Iowa, Nebraska and four other states. Asked if Monday's action differed from previous raids, officials said no.

''We're doing things the way we always do,'' Arnold said. ''Standard operating procedure. We're doing things the right way.''

The raid was aimed at seeking evidence of identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers and for people who are in the country illegally, ICE spokesman Tim Counts said.

According to an affidavit and search warrant, authorities relied heavily on an informant who infiltrated the plant with documents provided by ICE. The informant was hired in January and wore recording devices monitored by ICE.

The informant allegedly witnessed a system where some employees were paid in cash or with checks that did not have Agriprocessors' name on them.

Counts said a toll-free telephone number had been set up to assist family members of those arrested who have questions about their detention status and the removal process.

Sister Mary McCauley, a Roman Catholic nun at St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Postville, said family members of plant workers came to the nearby church in tears.

''The people right now are hearing and seeing the helicopters,'' McCauley said Monday morning. ''They are just panic-stricken and very frightened and some of them are coming to the church as a safe haven.''

The church is about five blocks from the plant, she said.

She said rumors began swirling around the community on Friday about an upcoming raid, leaving many people worried.

She said immigration officials arrived with buses, vans and two helicopters.

She said she went to the plant to help provide information and assist workers but was not allowed to get close.

''Some of the people that are going to be detained are up against a fence and now they're tying their hands,'' she said.

Many of the plant workers are Hispanic, mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, she said.

Asked about the raid during a Monday news conference, Gov. Chet Culver said both illegal immigrants and companies that knowingly hire them should be prosecuted.

''Illegal means illegal, not just those who are crossing the border illegally but those who are responsible for helping to make it happen,'' Culver said.

Culver added the importance in taking humanitarian concerns into account and said he'd raised this issue with immigration authorities.

The governor said he'd been told last week there would be federal action.

Agriprocessors also operates a slaughterhouse in Gordon, Neb. Counts said there was no raid at that facility on Monday.

Associated Press writers Michael Crumb, Mike Glover and David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

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busted 5/13/2008 1:08:00 PM This is good news. It's about time. These people are breaking the LAW. If we did the same WE would be in Jail. GO ICE! now go do some more!
This won't work until... 5/13/2008 1:25:00 PM They start convicting the business owners and managers to long prison sentences and seizing their assets under RICO statutes. These are criminal enterprises. Rounding up poor, desperate Mexicans won't solve anything when the corrupt business owners just import more illegals. Actually, these raids benefit the employers because the raids are timed so that the employer doesn't have to give the illegals their last paycheck. There is so much corruption going on here that it makes me sick.
The meat is Kosher... but not the workers! 5/13/2008 1:57:00 PM Just had to.
Fair's Fair 5/13/2008 2:50:00 PM How many plant owners and managers were detained at the fairgrounds and fed the same 3 meals a day?
Hundreds Arrested In Immigration Raid At Iowa Plant 5/13/2008 4:05:00 PM No sympathy to the people that were "worried" when rumors started spreading about the raid. If they were not doing anything wrong, they'd have nothing to worry about. If an American citizen were arrested at work for some reason, do you think they'd let you go home so you could take care of your kids and trust you to show up for a hearing at a later date??? I am tired of illegals getting preferential treatment. When are the employers going to be sanctioned??? Thank God Gov. Culver gets it!!!
un-kosher workers 5/13/2008 4:47:00 PM What precluded Gov. Culver from taking action with the state police prior to the ICE visit? Why let them go to collect their illegal kids, when they should all be rounded up too & kept at the fairgrounds ... until deported? Three meals & a snack ... man, that's rough! How many company officers were detained & fined? How about seizing company assets under RICO statutes? Why were there leaks about an impending raid ... can't the Governor's staff keep a secret? This appears to all be a charade. Our government leaders are just throwing the legal citizens of the USA a bone. There should have been ICE agents around all of the area Catholic churches to interview the fleeing "panic-stricken and very frightened" family members and friends before they entered the churches for sanctuary! Good work ICE, we want to see a lot more of it.
Illegal immigrants 5/13/2008 5:48:00 PM The point of the raid was what? To prove that we have a large population of undocumented workers? I would say with the utmost courtesy-DUH! My sincere hope is that those who are captured for trying to better themselves are assisted in becoming legal citizens of this country. The illegal alien issue is very similar to the marajuana issue in this country. We are treating it like the ostrich, sticking our heads in the sand regarding the real issue. How much tax dollars and and social security dollars are being lost every day by our failure to insure that these people are gettign documented and that means significant assistance in the documentation process. We spend alot of dollars each year in workforce development in this ocuntry and in doing so we need to develop the means that our illegal workforce can become legal. Scream and shout all you want, but some things are simply pervasive in this country and rather than fight the reality work with it to make it work for us. Why are we making criminals out of people who are simply trying to feed their families and are willing to work hard in harsh conditions to do so? If anything the punishment needs to be placed squarely on the people who are hring the illegals knowingly. I may sound a bit like a bleeding heart, I am not. I am pragmatic. This issue like many others in our country are unsolvable using conventional approaches. What is the definition of insanity? Why do we continue the current approach? What if our effort was to legalize, from a work visa perspective or some other perspective in a very streamlined quick procedure. Make it very easy to get in the system and then you have the information captured and then they becoome trackable just like big brother wants and at the same time we get the taxes and the ss# which makes them at least carry some portion of thier own burden. Other issues need to be addressed in the same way. Cheers H
Immigration Raid At Iowa Plant 5/13/2008 6:29:00 PM Why is it that everyone is so harsh to only the illegal immigrants? We have to start at the source, TOP management. If businesses would stop hiring illegal immigrants there would be nothing to talk about right now. You know, that supply and demand thing we have all learned about well it applies here. Why does the article not even mention tax evasion for the company? The executive staff needs to be arrested.
working in Mexico illegally 5/13/2008 8:17:00 PM A US citizen caught in a Maquiladora without a valid Mexican work permit goes to jail first. He gets out by having the company on whose premises he was caught pay a stiff fine. You can imagine how quickly they jump to do that.
If this were Mexico or Guatemala 5/14/2008 9:14:00 AM and they arrested illegal aliens in their wonderful countries, just where would they place the detainees? In a lice infested cell and a corn tortilla a day. As for the illegals with kids, I bet the kids would be their cellmates.
It doesn't help to compare U.S. to Mexico 5/14/2008 7:15:00 PM Mexico is a country with a huge Native American population ruled by a ultra rich European minority, held in place by the American government. For us to be talking about going to work there, they'd have to be well off and we'd have to be very poor. We should either deport them and imprison the employers under Rico statutes or give them work visas only so we can screen them for violent criminals. The rest are just people like us looking for a better life. If you are going to complain about them displacing Americans, then also complain more about the Chinese, Indians, Taiwanese and others who are brought in to displace the higher paid professions. I'd rather have the Mexicans here putting hot tar on our roofs than the Indians taking our high paid tech jobs. Either way, this all comes down to big business and government totally out of our control.
Long overdue enforcement of US Law 5/15/2008 9:28:00 AM It took an awfully long time to act on a complaint in mid 2007! I guess the Bush gang wants to claim that they diligently enforce this law! Oh I forgot! It is election year, and one must do something to show that the administration is honest and law-abidding. A hollow Hurray to the bozos who have refused to do anything timely. Is the plant being auctioned off to recover the profits from this illegal conpiracy like the house, car, paintings, and other items of value of a drug dealer or bootlegger? Let us see- $10,000 per day for 365 days or $3.65 million fine. Is the 10 years in prison for each offense or each day the offenses happened? Does the top boss get the longer sentence or the same sentence given to his hirelings? Now if I were making a product that did not comply with the law, I would have that product confiscated and held for evidence before it was disposed of by the courts. If I were making non tax paid spirits without a license or inspection, they would be poured down the drain-at least that is what happened when the early NASCAR drivers were trying to make a living before NASCAR. Try breaking the law in Mexico without buying a license or the government, and I will guarantee you that you will not be treated well. I can now also guarantee that you will hear the Mexican government screaming that we are being anti-Mexican and cruel and inhumane. I used to watch the Mexican officers openly assist setting up ladders to climb the US fence in Mexico while the climbers were having a snack from the taco stand set up close by. A previous president of Mexico said that it was the right of a Mexican citizen to cross into the US to work. I guess he still claims CA, AZ, NM, TX, and NV as Mexican land just waiting to be reclaimed.
Immigration Raid 5/20/2008 4:52:00 PM All of them should be sent back to Mexico, and the people (management) that helped should have to pay stiff fines and pay eestitution to the people who's identification they stole. If someone can't learn English they shouldn't be allowed to obtain employment in the US and shouldn't be allowed to become US citizens, English is the language here and I hate having to push a button to see and hear things in English
Immigration Raid 5/22/2008 6:00:00 PM I think this was a sorry political ploy during an election year. The illegal label automatically paints the image of criminals on par with killers and drug dealers, even though the overwhelming majority of undocumented workers are honest, decent people trying to make a living to feed their families. Mexicans and Central Americans who come here would not be here if their lives at home were better. NAFTA has created an ecomomic mess of their homelands, while being profitable to U.S. companies. As for the comment about making workers speak English; how many American born people can not speak English correctly? By this standard, employers wouldn't be able to find enough qualified American, English speaking workers to work in low-paying jobs.

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