Immigration raid in Iowa largest ever in US - 390 people

This is more than 12 hours old so I guess its not breaking but I saw it in a Socialist Worker email before I heard about it anywhere else.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal immigration raid at a kosher meatpacking plant in northeast Iowa was the largest such operation in U.S. history, with nearly 400 people arrested, federal officials said Tuesday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said at least 390 people were arrested on immigration charges as part of a raid Monday morning at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville. The plant had about 900 workers before the raid.

Most of the 314 men and 76 women arrested are from Guatemala and Mexico, but some were from Ukraine and Israel.

"Based on the number of ... arrests, this is the largest single site operation of its kind ever in the United States," said ICE spokesman Tim Counts. The raid followed a months-long investigation into Agriprocessors, the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the world.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jO9WZoMijd4RZonKDKU4OabjtjkgD90L3G1O0

Socialist version

snip

While ICE has dramatically increased its workplace raids since the agency was folded into the new Department of Homeland Security in 2003, few employers have been charged with any offense for hiring undocumented workers.

In December 2006, nearly 1,300 workers were rounded up at six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants, for example, but no Swift executive was ever prosecuted.

In fiscal 2007, while 4,900 undocumented workers were arrested, just 92 company owners or corporate officials were charged. The number of workers detained has increased 45-fold since 2001. The number of employers prosecuted has fallen dramatically, however, from 182 in 1999 to less than half that number last year.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/iowa-m14.shtml

If the employers don't hire illegals, there would be no problem!

I wondered what was going on! It was reported that the Federal government took over the
National Cattle Congress Fairgrounds, in Waterloo, Iowa. That is in Eastern Iowa, where
this raid took place. Two weeks ago, state and local newspapers reported that the Federal
Government had begun moving in many trailers to the fairgrounds, but would not comment on what
was going on.

I guess we now know what was going on. This is just disgusting...

Here is the link to the May 4, 2008 article--about the fairgrounds being leased to the Feds.

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2008/05/04/news/metro/10318480.txt

It has its own bias, for sure- but they cover this kind of thing while the MSM virtually ignores it. After I read the link I searched and found the AP article, but no other coverage. And this is going on around the country- terrifying immigrant families.

According to this article in the Waterloo Courier:

ICE officials said the GPS tracking devices that some of the 56 people released on humanitarian grounds must wear on their ankles are an example of considerate treatment. The devices free people to go home instead of being detained, Gonzalez said.

Sister Kathy Thill of the House of Mercy in Waterloo, who traveled to Postville to work with the families, said there are discrepancies between what ICE is reporting and volunteers' observations.

For example, some of the people who have been released separately told volunteers that they had not eaten for 15 hours, Thill said. None of the released immigrants wanted to talk about that publicly, fearing it would have a negative affect on their legal outcome down the road.

And immigration rights activists and lawyers were caught off-guard when criminal court proceedings began with little notice Tuesday afternoon.

(more at link) http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080514/NEWS10/805140373/1001/NEWS&theme=vacation

Welcome to the police state.

"While the exercise scenarios involved disasters or terrorist attacks on the East or West coasts, the locations where the exercises were to be conducted were not specified. Communications capabilities and interagency coordination were among the items to be tested."

What a load of crap!

they violate every law regarding the operation of this business. a simple google search will turn up pages about them. they should be in that cattle pen along with the poor people who wanted to make a living in america...good luck finding anyone to work there now....