Largest ICE Raid in US History: Howard Industries Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Violate Immigration Laws

On August 25, 2008, in Laurel, Mississippi, the largest ICE Raid in US History took place. Immigration agents swooped down on Howard Industries, a Mississippi electrical equipment factory, taking 481 workers to a privately-run detention center in Jena, Louisiana. A hundred and six women were also arrested at the plant, and released wearing shackles, electronic monitoring devices on their ankles. Many of the women were pregnant. Eight workers were taken to Federal court in Hattiesburg, where they were charged with aggravated identity theft. Meanwhile, the company repeatedly denied allegations that it had knowingly hired individuals without work authorization, putting all of the blame on its human resources manager, Jose Humberto Gonzalez, who was later charged in a 25-count indictment with conspiracy and employee verification fraud.

Last Thursday, Howard Industries pled guilty to conspiracy to violate immigration laws. They also agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine (largest fine ever in the state of Mississippi), which is roughly 5 times the standard penalty, supposedly for the actions of their one human resources manager. Clearly, there was significant wrong-doing here by the company to warrant such steep penalties.

According to court documents, their HR Manager routinely hired unauthorized workers. He solicited them. He utilized e-verify procedures. He accepted false documents, including social security cards; when he found this information false, he completed the I-9 documentation with bogus information. It is important to note that only 8 of the nearly 600 arrested were charged with any sort of identity theft. It is clear those falsifying data for the workers was the company itself. The HR Manager also regularly instructed employees to obtain alternative identity documents which he knew falsely represented their true identities and assured Spanish-speaking workers at the plant that he would warn them in the event of a raid. The HR Manager pled guilty in December 2009 to conspiracy and admitted that he hired hundreds of people who he knew were not authorized to work. He faces a maximum of 5 years of imprisonment on the conspiracy charge and on each employee verification fraud count. He also faces a minimum of 2 years of imprisonment for the aggravated identity theft charge and possible fine up to $250,000. However, he has yet to spend a day in prison or pay a dime of the fines.

As I have long reported, it is Big Business that entices/hires the so called "illeegals" to work here. In the Laurel case, Howard Industries received a large government contract in 2002. They quickly needed 1000 productive workers to fill the need. They consciously recruited and hired workers from south of the border. They provided them false documentation. Their HR Dept. told them they would alert them if there was an upcoming ICE Raid.

What is also interesting is, prior to the ICE Raids, the undocumented workers were being recruited by their Local Unions and the workers were starting to sign up. This same scenario happened in Postville, Iowa. The workers were being solicited by Local Unions prior to their ICE Raid. In Laurel and in Postville, as soon as the workers starting listening to the Unions, started talking about unsafe working conditions, no breaks and lower wages, at that point, both Employers started working with ICE and massive ICE Raids occurred. Laurel had the largest ICE Raid in US History. Postville had the 2nd largest. In both cases, the workers were whisked away to Privately Owned Detention Centers -- owned by Republican donors. Laurel workers were whisked away to the Jena Louisiana private prison. The Postville workers were whisked to Texas Private Prisons before eventually being sent back to their countries of origin.

I find the actions of Howard Industries despicable. They solicited and recruited these workers, providing them false papers and false promises. Many of the workers were recruited from ravaged countries like Guatemala. They used them, shackled them, imprisoned them and sent them back. Howard Industries and Agriprocessors did the same exploitation as many other Businesses, the difference is in the number of workers they abused then swept away.

Why are Howard Industries and Agriprocessors being punished when other employers have NOT been punished? I imagine it is quite a surprise to them that they are being held accountable. Afterall, the ICE Raids occurred during the Bush Administration. Both companies were big RNC contributors. Howard Industries had just received a huge government contract. How could they know the Obama Administration would promise that Employers would be held accountable and they would be the primary target for prosecution. How would they know that the World is watching to see if President Obama keeps this promise.

Howard Industries and Agriprocessors were both blatant in their actions in the number of workers hired; blatant in their abuse of e-verify and creating false documentation, blatant in contacting ICE once the workers sought relief from Unions for their mistreatment and unsafe working conditions. Postville Owners were punished; now Laurel has pleaded guilty for their crimes. May the owners and those responsible for their actions be punished to the fullest degree.
It is time for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. No rational person expects Mass Deportation to occur. A recent Pew poll indicated that the vast majority of Americans do NOT support Mass Deportation and support a path to citizenship for those here. Until CIR is passed, we are going to see the continued exploitation of workers and the continued Racial Profiling and Race-Based Hate Bills as is occurring in Arizona.

I doubt, however, that CIR will be introduced before 2013. Sad to say, it appears we are going to continue to live in status quo until after the next election.
References:
Mississippi Manufacturer Agrees to Pay Record $2.5 million fine for Immigration and I-9 Violations
Howard Industries Human Resources Manager Charged with Conspiracy and Employee Verification Fraud
Did a Mississippi Raid Protect Rightwing Politicians?

ICE RAID UPDATE: Another Exploitive Employer Finally Faces the Music! But No Relief for Workers!

In March, 2007, one of the largest and most non-humane ICE Raids occurred at the Michael Bianco Inc. plant in New Bedford, MA. Federal authorities arrested 361 workers, most of whom were from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. These raids were particularly cruel as ICE Raiders stormtrooped into this small factory and arrested the majority, 361 of their workers. These workers were shackled. Many were rushed away into the night and flown to a Detention Center in Texas. Families and the townsfolk were in shock especially since there was no mention of where the workers were being sent or how their children or families could contact them. Immigrant advocates criticized the raid for separating families and leaving children without proper care. Somehow, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said the raid was properly handled although leaders in the State of Massachusetts disagreed.

It was reported that Francesco Insolia, the owner of the plant, had solicited, hired and exploited these 300+ workers, most of whom were from war torn, hurricane ravaged Guatemala. He said he did this so he could fulfill his contract with the Government of producing backpacks for the soldiers in Iraq. Initially, no charges were filed against Insolia although the government did say they were investigating. Now, 19 months later, news reports indicate Insolia is FINALLY being held accountable for his crimes.

AP Reports:

Michael Bianco Inc., a manufacturer that was awarded almost $230 million in (Government) contracts, also pleaded guilty Monday to 18 specific counts of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants between early 2004 and late 2006. The company has agreed to pay a fine of about $1.5 million and pay around $460,000 in restitution for overtime owed to employees. Insolia faces a year to 18 months in prison for his guilty plea and has agreed to pay a fine of $30,000. "The defendants' conduct in this case undermines our nation's principles of freedom and the integrity of our immigration system, oftentimes placing legally operating businesses at a competitive disadvantage," said U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan. In addition, Sullivan announced that two managers of Michael Bianco Inc. have agreed to plead guilty in connection to the March 2007 raid. Dilia Costa, the company's production manager, pleaded guilty to hiring and harboring illegal immigrants. Gloria Melo, the company's contracts administrator, pleaded guilty to continuing to employ illegal immigrants even after the company had reason to know their legal status. All will be sentenced in mid-January.

I have reported and commented about Insolia for some time. His was the first of the largest ICE Raids with the most inhumane treatment to their workers. He has gone unpunished for his exploitation for far too long. It is about time he has been brought to justice given the danger he imposed on his workers and on the New Bedford community. That said, it should also be reported that his business, Michael Bianco Inc., went OUT of Business. He sold his company to Eagle Industries of Fenton, Mo., his largest competitor. The latest information I found on Eagle Industries in New Bedford was this report.

from the MA AFL-CIO:

Description:
When workers at Eagle Industries in New Bedford tried to organize with UNITE HERE, management told more than four dozen workers that they were being terminated and their jobs shifted to Puerto Rico.
Eagle Industries is under contract to produce backpacks for the U.S. military. Join us in letting them know that companies under contract with the federal government should respect the right to join a union, and not send jobs offshore as a form of retaliation.

This exploitive employer is abusing American workers! Why aren´t these types of threats illegal?

Postville Update: Human Resourced Indicted!

As I have said from the beginning, Agriprocessors employers sought, recruited, hired and exploited numerous illegal immigrants, primarily from Guatemala, into their meatpacking plant in Postville. Even the initial Arrest Warrant contained documents proving the Human Resources department was involved.
As I reported on Sept 9, the Iowa Attorney General filed charges against the employer and managers for hiring underage children.
Now the Feds are indicting two Human Resources employees for harboring, aiding and abetting document fraud and identity theft. These are significant charges which should have been implemented with the intial warrant. Hopefully soon, the Employer were also be indicted for these charges.
Agriprocessors human resources employees indicted
The Gazette CEDAR RAPIDS — The two Agriprocessors, Inc. human resources employees charged last week were indicted Wednesday by a grand jury in U.S. District Court.Laura Althouse, 38 of Postville, was charged with aiding and abetting document fraud and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. Laura Freund, 29, of Fayette, was charged with harboring and aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented aliens. Both will be arraigned Sept. 24. Althouse works in the human resources department and has payroll duties, and Freund also works in human resources at the kosher meatpacking plant in Postville. The complaint alleges a plant supervisor was in the human resources department assisting employees with the completion of new applications, in new names and using newly acquired false identification documents on May 11, a day before a immigration raid. Althouse was assisting in the process and knew some of the applicants were current employees. Freund was implicated in helping undocumented alien employees obtain false identification documents, according to the complaint.If convicted, Althouse faces up to 12 years in federal prison and Freund faces up to five years.

Postville Update: Owners Continue to go Scot Free While Underling Latino Supervisors Plea Bargains Prove Owners´ Guilt!

The Rubashkins are happy they continue to go unpunished as their Latino flunkies are forced to take the rap!

The Des Moines Register Reports:

Agriprocessors supervisor faces additional charge
GRANT SCHULTE gschulte@dmreg.com • August 19, 2008
A manager who allegedly helped hide illegal workers at Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville will plead guilty Wednesday to charges tied to his role in the secret operation that employed nearly 700 illegal immigrants, according to a court docket published Tuesday. Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza will appear at a change-of-plea hearing at a temporary federal court in Cedar Rapids, according to the online court docket. The news came as U.S. Attorney Matt Dummermuth announced the 35-year-old plant supervisor will face charges that he conspired with his employer to hire the illegal workers. The plea bargain comes three months after federal agents raided the plant at detained 389 immigrant workers. Teig said the investigation remains open, but declined to say whether authorities would charge any other managers.

Two lawyers for Guerrero-Espinoza did not return phone calls seeking comment.Guerrero-Espinoza, who supervised the plant’s beef kill department, allegedly told a group of employees a few days before the raid that they needed new identification papers and Social Security numbers to stay employed. The supervisor allegedly asked workers for photographs and $200 to $220 for new documents.Later, according to the complaint, Guerrero-Espinoza told the employees that they could return to work.

Postville Update: ACLU Uncovers PROOF of Justice Denied in Speedy Cattle Barn Trials!

The truth has come to light and is now before a Congressional Hearing! The ACLU has uncovered the Government "manual" distributed to Iowa defense lawyers to commit their swift cattle barn injustice in Postville. Workers were hauled to Cattle Barns. The judge and the prosecutor agreed to the prescripted hearings and preordained guilty pleas. Lawyers were handed the scripts and told to support dozens of clients, with little to no preparation but the scripts. End Result: Guilty Verdicts and Injustice for All!

The New York Times reports: (summary)

The legal blueprint for those extraordinarily swift proceedings (in Postville) has come to light, and it is raising questions about the close collaboration in the months before the raid between the federal court in Iowa and the prosecutors who pressed the charges. The blueprint is a 117-page compendium of scripts, laying out step by step the hearings that would come after the raid at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out at a single workplace. The documents suggest that the court had endorsed the prosecutors’ drive to obtain the guilty pleas even before the hearings began. The scripts included a model of the guilty pleas that prosecutors planned to offer as well as statements to be made by the judges when they accepted the pleas and handed down sentences. “This was the Postville prosecution guilty-plea machine,” said Lucas Guttentag, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the A.C.L.U. “The entire process seemed to presume and be designed for fast-track guilty pleas.”
One defense lawyer who received the scripts from prosecutors on the day of the raid said he became convinced that the hearings had been organized to produce guilty pleas for the prosecution. As a result, the lawyer, Rockne Cole, declined to represent any of the arrested immigrants and “walked out in disgust,” he wrote in a letter to a Congressional subcommittee that is scrutinizing the raid and the legal proceedings that followed. Mr. Cole wrote that he was most dismayed to see that the scripts specified the particular plea agreements that would be offered to the defendants. “What I found most astonishing,” he wrote, “is that apparently Chief Judge Reade had already ratified these deals prior to one lawyer even talking to his or her client.” The hearings were conducted in emergency courtrooms set up in the National Cattle Congress, a fairground in Waterloo. Magistrate judges took guilty pleas from immigrants in groups of 10, then the immigrants were immediately sentenced, five at a time. Only a handful of the workers, mostly illegal immigrants from Guatemala, had prior criminal records. The scripts specified that prosecutors would offer a particular type of plea agreement that leaves no discretion to judges to raise or lower sentences. Some defense and immigration lawyers said the inclusion of these plea agreements was a sign of overly close cooperation between the court and prosecutors. “Here you have a court communicating with one side and not the other about substantive issues,” said Robert R. Rigg, a Drake University law professor who is president of the Iowa Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “The court had bound itself to the agreement before the plea was accepted.” Professor Rigg and other legal scholars said such plea agreements were generally negotiated between prosecutors and defense lawyers after a defendant was charged, and were later approved by the judge. The rule governing the plea bargaining says, “The court must not participate in these agreements.”

EPITOME OF EVIL: Agriprocessors Continues to Pursue Latino Workers (Legal or illegal) Rather than Improve Working Conditions and Pay Livable Wages

Agriprocessors the most egregious corporation in US History is continuing to seek Latino Workers, legal or illegal, rather than improve their deplorable, unsafe working conditions or pay livable wages to Local Workers. The Rubashkins have a history rife with crime. From abusing workers, violating Child Labor Laws, illegally working children 11 hours a day with no overtime pay to providing illegal workers False Green Cards, this Company and all like them must be stopped and the owners responsible imprisoned. They have destroyed a nice town, exploited countless workers and stood as a model of unpunished corruption for others to follow. When will the Government and Law Enforcement finally put these heinous employers behind bars? Or do those GOP donations really afford them the opportunity to avoid prosecution for their crimes?

The Iowa Indepedent Reports:

Ryan Regenold, a spokesman for Des Moines-based Jacobson Companies, said his staffing company was relying on two Texas agencies, one in Amarillo and another in McAllen, for recruiting in that state. “I represent Jacobson Staffing, and we were brought here on June 2 to basically bring in an entire new community — at least that’s how it seems,” Regenold said. “There are two outside-sourced agencies that Agri is using that were bringing the people from Texas. As I’m sure most have already heard, they are coming in from Amarillo and McAllen (TX-MX border town). To shore up that, we are screening those people a little bit better, we will be starting to have them drug-screened and background-checked prior to their coming to Postville. The wave of people that you might have seen in the past, those causing the police chief to do a little bit of extra paperwork on his weekends, hopefully will begin to stop.”...One of the firms being utilized by Jacobson is Bravo Labor Agency in McAllen, Texas. Although the company’s Web site has been taken off-line, a May 30 cached version of the page indicates that the firm began in 1987. One of the specialties highlighted by the firm is its ability to “lower overhead, with inexpensive labor from South Texas and Mexico.” ...

The “bad apples” aren’t the first to come to Postville for work at Agriprocessors only to seek exit shortly after their arrival. Labor Ready, a multinational staffing firm with a branch in Waterloo, Iowa cited health and safety concerns as the reason it pulled roughly 150 workers out of the Agriprocessors plant 10 days after they started employment there. Another group of workers from the company’s Nebraska plant opted to return west, claiming the working conditions in Postville to be far inferior to their original location.

---------------------------

Agriprocessors and the Rubashkins make me angry! Why is it that rather than improve their working conditions and pay livable wages, they seek Latino workers in Texas, legal or illegal? The answers are clear. 1. GREED, 2. they have no regard for the workers they deem inferior and 3. they know their GOP Cronies will allow their crimes to go unpunished. These employers are the epitome of EVIL!

Postville Update: Severed Limbs Common at Agriprocessor´s Medieval Plant!

Medieval! The Des Moines Register, the warrant and the OSHA reports tell us the Conditions at the Agriprocessors plant have been medieval for some time! They have a long history of amputations including severed hands, feet, crushed body parts. Workers were made to work long hours (up to and over 80 hours in a week with no overtime) in unsafe conditions and no safety equipment.

The DesMoines Register reports:

Plant has long history of safety violations
Three months ago, state officials cited Agriprocessors for 39 workplace safety violations - an unusually large number.Federal and state records give conflicting information on fines against the company, but for the past few years Agriprocessors appears to have compiled one of the worst safety records of any meatpacking plant in Iowa. Although detailed worker-injury reports since 2006 are not publicly available, the Register has reviewed Agriprocessors' reports for the three previous years.

In 2003, the company reported 83 employee injuries, including smashed ankles, lacerated tendons in hands, smashed arms, and amputated fingers.

In 2004, the number of injuries jumped 45 percent, to 120, with workers being treated for chemical burns to their eyes and feet, third-degree burns, hand lacerations and broken ribs.

In 2005, the number of injuries dropped to 103. They included hearing losses, smashed fingers and severed fingers. The 2005 reports include the three amputations that began with Carlos Torrez's loss of a finger.

State records indicate that four weeks after that accident, Adolfo Lopez, 26, was working on a machine called "the foot masher."Witnesses said they heard Lopez screaming about 5:30 a.m. He had been clearing debris from inside the machine when a supervisor unwittingly turned on the device, crushing Lopez's left hand."I saw (Lopez) caught up in the gears, the teeth of the foot masher," maintenance worker Deon Branish told officials. "His left hand was stuck all the way to the wrist." Ten days after that incident, plant sanitation manager Jeff Bohr was at home when a co-worker called to tell him Eduardo Santos, 25, was in the laundry room with a severe hand injury. Bohr went to the plant, examined Santos' right hand, and called an ambulance. Then he looked into the machine Santos had been working on and saw pieces of two work gloves."There were also pieces of skin and bone," Bohr wrote in his report.Company records indicate Santos lost two fingers and a thumb. The remainder of his hand was crushed.

Workers must pay for safety equipment:

Company records indicate that workers had long been forced to either do without the protective gear or purchase it themselves from the company. And because some workers allegedly had no lockers at the plant, they often took their chemical-soaked rain suits home with them at the end of their shift. Company Vice President Sholom Rubashkin, in a September 2000 memo to all employees, included an "equipment price list" that identifies rain pants and jackets, as well as "wrist wraps" and "back support," as "personal clothing-type equipment," rather than mandatory, company-issued safety equipment. For at least six years, workers were being charged $30 for the pants and $30 for the jackets. Boots were $20.85. At those prices, 100 rain suits would have generated $8,000 in revenue for the company. By comparison, the state fine for this serious safety violation was $1,000.
In December 2006, a commission appointed by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism found significant health and safety concerns at the Postville plant, including unsafe chemical use and "inadequate or nonexistent safety training."OSHA cited the company for more violations, and federal investigators launched a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of people in the United States illegally who were hired there, of child-labor law violations and of workplace safety issues.
Court records show that in January 2008, federal authorities equipped an informant with a hidden device to record a safety briefing for new employees. During the briefing, employees were allegedly told that their pay would be docked $2 per week to pay for gowns and gloves that they were required to wear. That informant, and another, made broader allegations, too. One told authorities a plant supervisor had put duct tape over the eyes of a Guatemalan worker and then beat the worker with a meat hook. Another told authorities that some workers were paid less than minimum wage and were paid in cash. Several informants alleged that the Postville work force was rife with illegal immigrants.

Cronyism:

In April, Eric Frumin of the Change To Win labor organization testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee that was investigating workplace safety. He told senators that Agriprocessors had just been cited for 39 additional violations of health and safety regulations that carried potential fines totaling $182,000. "For perspective," he testified, "in 2007, Iowa OSHA issued 19 violations for all meatpacking plants in Iowa, with fines totaling over $120,000."What Frumin didn't realize was that the Iowa OSHA office had already agreed to cut Agriprocessors' fines. The agreement would not be made public for several weeks, but when it was, it showed the state had cut the proposed $182,000 fine to $42,750.

The company has had annual revenue of $250 million.

Postville Latest Update: Low Level Hispanic Supervisors Arrested, Warrant Out for Jewish Manager who Fled to Israel! Feds said Plant "Medieval!"

Congratulations to the Union and to the Blogosphere for keeping the pressure on the Justice Department. They arrested two Agriprocessor Supervisors.
Special Kudos to FailedMessiah.com and to the Latino PRO Blogosphere for keeping this topic HOT!
The bad news is, only two low level Latino supervisors have been indicted so far. Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza was a supervisor in the Beef Kill dept. Officials are saying he was an American citizen. They are keeping mum on the citizenship status of Martin De La Rosa-Loera, the supervisor of the Poultry kill department. There is an arrest warrant out for Jewish Plant Manager Amara, however as we previously reported, Agriprocessors quickly whisked him off to Israel one step ahead of the authorities. Rubashkin also replaced his son Sholom as Chief Executive attempting to save him from being charged. News reports indicate, however, that due to the continued pressure from the Unions and the Blogosphere, the Grand Jury investigation of Agriprocessors is continuing, especially since they found Fake Green Cards in Agriprocessors HR Office and Feds investigating said the Plant Conditions were medieval!
The Cedar Rapids Gazette is reporting:
..The supervisors were indicted by a federal grand jury after a former human resources employee and illegal immigrants at Agriprocessors testified last month, according to court records. They told investigators of an effort by the men to update employee documents in the weeks before the raid. The week before the raid, Guerrero-Espinoza told some of his employees to give him $200 for new documentation to continue working at the company, court records state. Some of the workers testified that he asked them for an extra $20 to cover the cost of gasoline or serve as his commission. On the day before the raid, the workers were provided new application packets complete with fake resident alien cards to sign and return...Both men face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the charges. Guerrero-Espinoza is facing an additional charge of aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft, which could get him another sentence of up to 15 years. ICE officials are seeking the public's help in locating Hosam Amara, 43, last known to live in Postville. The criminal complaint against him has been sealed until his arrest. Anyone with information is asked to call ICE at 1-(888) 347-2423.
The New York Times reported:
..Federal authorities called the raid the largest enforcement operation by immigration authorities at a single workplace. Unions and immigrant advocacy groups had criticized immigration officials for focusing arrests on workers while taking no action against top managers. The arrest warrant was issued for Hosam Amara, 43. In interviews after the raid, several workers said Mr. Amara was a floor manager with more authority than line supervisors. They said he was a link between workers on the slaughterhouse floors and meatpacking lines and more senior management. Agriprocessors, which before the raid was the country’s largest producer of kosher meat, is owned by Aaron Rubashkin. Two weeks after the raid, he removed his son Sholom as chief executive. Most of the illegal immigrants arrested at the plant were from rural Guatemala. In expedited proceedings (Cattle Barn justice), 270 workers were sent to federal prison on criminal charges, most for presenting false documents when they were hired...A former human resources employee cited in the complaint said Mr. Guerrero regularly brought in fake green cards for applicants.
A separate complaint says Mr. De la Rosa, a supervisor in Poultry Kill, also told illegal immigrant workers shortly before the raid that they needed new identity documents. The complaints make it clear that a grand jury investigation of Agriprocessors is continuing. Union officials said the new arrests did not go far enough. “The arrest of two low-level supervisors, while a start, barely scratches the surface of this company’s bad behavior,” said Scott Frotman, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has tried to organize the plant. “What about the allegations of worker abuse? Does anyone really believe that these low-level supervisors acted alone without the knowledge, or even the direction, of the Rubashkins and other senior management?”

UPDATE:
Wall St Journal reports:
..The complaint (warrant) also alleges that the May 12 raid resulted in the seizure of dozens of fraudulent permanent alien resident cards in the human-resources department at Agriprocessors. The raid exposed allegations that workers at the sprawling plant, which employed more than 900 people, were underpaid, physically abused, sexually harassed and extorted. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a U.S. government official who has visited the plant described the operation as "medieval." An investigation is still under way, and a court spokesman declined to disclose whether more arrests are likely.

Postville Update: Agriprocessors Free to Stir Up More Trouble in Postville!

Postville was left "absolutely shattered" after last month´s heavily armed worker raids. The workers received swift, cattle barn justice. The employers, however, were left free to continue their abuses, despite hiring a GOP crony-pal "compliance" officer.

The Star Tribune Reports:

"There´s Something Bad In This Town"

Why the raid occurred - from warrant (pg 3):

The federal raid this spring came about based on information from an informant inside the plant who reported witnessing plant managers hire and help workers with fake identity papers. Up to 76 percent of workers did not have correct Social Security numbers, according to the search warrant. The informant also reported seeing managers abuse workers, including hitting one with a meat hook. One manager also ran a scam in which illegal workers were coerced into buying cars from him, the warrant said. Some female employees also have alleged they were sexually coerced by managers, according to St. Bridget's Sister Mary McCauley.

Abuses Continue (page 2, 5):

. New replacement worker Josephina Ortiz, near tears, telling strangers that she came from California based on promises by Agriprocessors of free rent, food and a good job. Instead, she claims, she found a filthy, expensive apartment and mandatory 14-hour days. "Please God, somebody help us," said Ortiz, who is in the United States legally. "There's something bad in this town. I don't know how this can happen in the United States of America."

. Agriprocessors' new hires, whites and African-Americans, who arrived on the bus. They said they'd been promised a $100 advance, but few of them got it. So their first stop was the food shelf (free food bank).

. Diane Morris, who was living in a Texas homeless shelter, said the company promised a free furnished apartment for a month. Instead, she was put in a four-bedroom house with 10 men, she said. "Everywhere I've been I've been sexually approached," she said. She claims she was fired after two days when she went to the company clinic for medications for a mental illness.

. Some new hires have already caused enough trouble at bars that city officials and police have met with the company to demand better screening.

Why protesters are angry (page 3, 4):

"Workers openly say they were advised by the plant on how to get false documents," he said. "Now if the government does not take action on that and charge the owners, then this was strictly a raid to threaten and terrorize people. The situation at Agriprocessors reveals "a lack of respect of human dignity of people other than you," Ouderkirk said. "Politicians who should have been leading the way did nothing."

After the Raids, Only Positive (page 5):

"I'd say the relationship between Hispanics and people who grew up around here has gotten stronger because of this," he said. "The people who have grown up around here suddenly realized [the workers] were real people, too." The town even put up red ribbons on lampposts in support of plant workers. While he abhors the tactics of immigration officials, Ouderkirk says some good may come of their raid. "They brought out the cracks in the dam and the folly of our immigration policy," he said.

Breaking News! Agriprocessors - Exploitation Central - Hires Texas Latino Homeless to Backfill Postfill Jobs!!!

Agriprocessors, the most exploitive employer in American History, has gone beyond the pale! They are invading the Texas streets and collecting the Latino homeless to fill the Postville Agriprocessors jobs. Are these jobs truly work Americans won´t do or is Agriprocessors out to continue to exploit another minority group? (Citizen Latino Homeless)

The Jewish Journal Reports:

NEW YORK (JTA)—In an effort to restore lagging production at its plant in Postville, Iowa, the country’s largest kosher meat producer has been hiring workers from homeless shelters in Texas to replace employees detained in a massive federal immigration raid last month. According to a spokesman for the meat producer Agriprocessors, workers are recruited by a firm in Amarillo, Texas, and sent to Postville. Once there, they are processed by Jacobson Staffing, a Des Moines-based company that screens them for drugs and alcohol and ensures they are legally permitted to work in the United States.
Several officials in Postville say the new arrivals have created problems for the town. Postville Police Chief Michael Halse told JTA that his officers had arrested four plant workers for disorderly conduct this week.
Father Paul Ouderkirk, leader of the local Catholic church, which has played a lead role in helping former workers and their families after last month’s raid, said a mentally challenged woman from Texas had come to his church looking for help with prescription medications. And in an interview Friday with Postville’s local radio station, Diana Morris said she spent three days on a bus from Amarillo only to discover she was expected to live with 10 men in a four-bedroom house that had no electricity or hot water. “Amarillo’s homeless problem has become Postville’s homeless problem,” Jeff Abbas, who runs the KPVL radio station, told JTA.

In a statement Friday to JTA, Jim Martin, Agriprocessors’ newly hired compliance officer, said any allegations that contractors had misled new recruits would be investigated. “We would note that we do not believe that homeless people should be prohibited from applying for employment from Agriprocessors,” Martin added. “In fact, for the appropriate individuals, we welcome the opportunity to offer them the chance to better their lives.” Agriprocessors has been struggling to restore production since authorities conducted the largest immigration raid in U.S. history May 12 at the Postville plant. Nearly half the workforce was rounded up and some 300 workers are now facing deportation, having pleaded guilty to various forms of identity theft and fraud. The company has had trouble getting its production levels back to speed, sparking concerns of a kosher meat shortage around the country.
Within weeks of the raid, a Waterloo staffing company withdrew an estimated 150 replacement workers from the plant, citing safety concerns. A group of Native Americans brought in from a smaller Agriprocessors plant in Gordon, Neb., left within days, saying working conditions were worse than expected and the company hadn’t made good on its promises. Those reports have helped prompt several Jewish organizations to call for boycotts of the company. But Rabbi Seth Mandel, rabbinic coordinator for the Orthodox Union, one of two agencies certifying the plant as kosher, says Agriprocessors merely is responding to the dictates of the market. “Most consumers will not pay a premium for free-range, natural or organic beef, no matter how much lip service they pay to the idea,” Mandel wrote in an e-mail obtained by JTA. “The same thing holds true regarding employees and their working conditions. Meat packers would [have] no problem with paying higher wages and make working conditions better—IF the consumers would pay the premium price thereby entailed.”
In her interview with Abbas, Morris described how she was recruited from Amarillo with about 15 others and given a Greyhound bus ticket and $15 dollars to pay for food during the 1,000-mile journey. She said she was promised 30 days of free housing as well as a $100 bonus upon arrival. What made the offfer so attractive, Morris said, was the $10 per hour that Agriprocessors is now offering. “Everything down there is about $6 an hour being paid, and that’s the minimum wage,” she said of Texas. Juda Engelmayer, a company spokesman, said that Jacobson determined who was fit to work in the plant and that resources were provided to transport workers back to their homes if they weren’t offered jobs. “They are given the opportunity and the means to go back where they came from,” Engelmayer said. “I don’t know if everyone takes it. Free citizens are free to move around as they wish.”