A year later, Postville has generated discussion but few results

Iowa had its share of the spotlight in 2008. The Hawkeye state catapulted former Sen. Barack Obama to the front of the presidential race, suffered a nearly unprecedented spate of floods and other natural disasters, and became a leader in renewable energy development and production. Amid all that, it might be easy to forget that a year ago this month, a small town in northeast Iowa became ground zero of the heated debate over U.S. immigration policy.

Postville had been known as a unique community for years. Home to the Kosher meatpacking company Agriprocessors, Inc., the city had a diverse population of Orthodox Jews, immigrants from Latin American countries, and native Iowans. Though the city always grappled with its disparate constituencies, the May 12, 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at Agriprocessors changed things there forever.

News coverage of the raid generated more calls for comprehensive immigration reform from leaders across the country, but one open question remains: Will the experiences of Postville change things anywhere else?

Postville, a human face

Although ICE had been conducting work site immigration raids for years, the massive raid in tiny Postville struck an emotional chord with people who typically approached the discussion from opposite ends of the spectrum. (At the time, it was the largest single-site immigration raid in the nation’s history.)

Later in the summer, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus traveled to the town to see it firsthand. U.S. Rep. Tom Latham (R-Ames), whose district includes Postville, hoped it would be a chance for more leaders to see a real-world example of U.S. immigration policy.

“The members of the Hispanic Caucus will have seen firsthand, number one, the effect of the meatpacking plant owners and, what appears to be, them knowingly having illegal people working there,” Latham said in a July interview with Iowa Independent. “They will see the impact and the consequences of that. Most importantly to me, they are going to see how devastating this was to the families who have been torn apart — the human impact on these people.”

Three members of the federal delegation that visited Postville were noticeably moved by the stories they heard. U.S. Rep. Joe Baca, a California Democrat, rose from his chair, crossed the room and hugged one immigrant woman who shared her experiences. U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat, said, “I know this in all aspects of my life: This is a human crisis.”

Several Iowans delivered testimony to Congress about the raids including local attorneys, a court-hired translator who assisted with the criminal prosecutions of detainees, religious leaders and U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Cedar Falls), whose district borders Postville.

But a year later, the possibility of comprehensive immigration reform is still distant. Braley recently admitted that despite his wishes to the contrary, he does not expect significant immigration reform to go before Congress anytime soon.

Indeed, despite a massive demonstration in Postville, visits from congressional leaders, hundreds of prayer vigils, local calls for comprehensive reform, a Beltway regime change, and pressure from the various odd-bedfellows now working in concert to make good on the lessons of Postville, there are few policy improvements to show for all the effort.

Questioning ‘assembly-line justice’

The one aspect of Postville’s story that does seem to be having a national impact relates to the way detainees are prosecuted after a raid has happened, and the fight is being waged in the courts, not in Congress.

Most detained Agriprocessors workers were charged with aggravated identity theft, a criminal violation that carried a two-year federal prison term. The workers, who knew little or no English, were offered mass-produced plea deals on a lesser charge that carried only a five-month prison term. Legal representation was provided by criminal defense attorneys, hired by the government, who were charged with representing 10 or more individuals.

Although immigration attorneys outside the make-shift courtroom in Waterloo complained that they were not being allowed access to the detainees, federal officials quickly responded that criminal complaints trump administration (immigration-only) offenses. Even as they fled to other states, panicked residents of Postville told stories of inhumane detainee treatment and spoke of residential immigration sweeps.

Days later, when 76 percent of the 389 detained workers had signed the plea deals, federal officials came out swinging.

“It is unfortunate that those with their own agenda have spread misinformation — ignoring the fact that 297 people admitted their crimes and accepted the consequences of their actions. There have been no checkpoints, no random checks, and no house-to-house sweeps as have been rumored,” said Matt Dummermuth, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.

Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of ICE’s Office of Investigations, also derided “the usual spate of false allegations and baseless rumors.”

Perhaps because of the humanitarian public relations fiasco that encompassed an earlier immigration raid in Marshalltown, federal officials began mounting a defense at a press conference the day after the raid. It was first announced at that event that several detainees had been released back into the community. The move, which was initially welcomed by human rights advocates, would later become a primary example of government cruelty. The detainees, released back into Postville due to medical conditions or to care for children, could not legally earn a living. And, despite the swiftness of the earlier plea arrangements, the wheels of justice moved slow for those left in limbo.

The undeniably efficient criminal proceedings that took place in the days following the raid — plea deals that have been labeled as coerced by some who witnessed them — lit an immediate firestorm against an already tainted Department of Justice. Following oversight hearings in their U.S. House committees, U.S. Reps. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) spoke out against such expedited court proceedings, labeling them “a kangaroo court.”

“The assembly-line justice that we heard about today denies people the opportunity to assert asylum claims or get help if they were subjected to human trafficking or other forms of abuse,” Sánchez said.

Immigration advocates had high hopes when the new Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, announced that all raids would be ceased while her department crafted a new policy. But as information about the new policy comes to light, it is not clear that much has changed.

Still, a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision calls into question many of the so-called “assembly line” convictions by narrowing the federal definition of aggravated identity theft. The court ruled unanimously that suspects must have knowingly used another person’s identity to be convicted of the aggravated crime.

Since most of the Postville workers signed plea agreements on lesser charges and waived their right to appeal, it is not known how many of their convictions will be revisited, though many were initially charged with the crime in question. Still, as Congress seems to wait for other issues to quiet down before tackling immigration, recognition of the lessons of Postville is welcome, no matter where it comes from.