Postville Detainees Will Leave Waterloo Facility Soon

Criminal hearings are currently under way in makeshift courtrooms in Waterloo for 20 of the nearly 400 individuals detained following a Monday immigration raid of meatpacking plant Agriprocessors, Inc., in Postville.

In a press conference this afternoon in Cedar Rapids, Matt Dummermuth, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, and Claude Arnold, special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said the process of separating individuals charged in a criminal offense from those only facing administrative charges is ongoing and more criminal charges are expected.

“As of right now 20 people have been arrested on criminal charges following their administrative arrest,” Dummermuth said. “This includes 10 men and 10 women so far. Those people — and any others who are arrested on federal criminal charges — will appear in federal court in Waterloo.”

Temporary courtrooms have been placed at the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo. It marks the first time since 1996 that the court has temporarily moved to handle criminal cases related to immigration work site enforcement operations. Dummermuth said that the exact criminal charges vary from individual to individual, but include felony allegations of aggravated identity theft and false use of social security numbers.

“Those charged criminally will receive attorneys and will appear before a federal magistrate judge for an initial appearance,” Dummermuth said. “Meeting rooms have been set up for people criminally arrested to meet with their attorneys. The magistrate courtroom has been set up in the Electric Park Ballroom, and two district court courtrooms have been set up in nearby trailers. The court plans to post names and appearance times on its Web site as well as on site at the fairgrounds.”

Hearings for the 10 men criminally charged began at 4 p.m. today. Hearings for the women facing criminal charges will begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

“There may be other hearings, yet to be scheduled, for tonight — so there may be more than that,” Dummermuth added.

Those detained in criminal proceedings will no longer be held in temporary detention facilities, but will be placed in U.S. Marshals Service custody. Men currently awaiting a hearing on criminal charges will remain in Estel Hall as a temporary detention facility until they have appeared in court. Women facing criminal charges will likewise remain in the local jail facilities that are being used as temporary detention locations until they have appeared in court. Following initial appearances, individuals not released pending their next court appearance will be placed in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service for confinement in local jails.

Individuals that are not facing criminal prosecution, but still subject to administrative detention, will remain in Estel Hall or local jails until they are moved to other locations for the completion of the administrative process. According to Dummermuth, there will be no administrative proceedings held at the Waterloo site.

“Everyone will have an opportunity to be represented in their administrative proceedings,” said Arnold. “Right now, people are going through the criminal proceedings, but when it comes time for them to complete the intake processing for administrative proceedings, they will have the opportunity to be represented by counsel.”

Arnold added that some already have representation and that those who do not will be provided a local list of free or low-cost legal services. Administrative hearings will be scheduled at locations throughout the nation where ICE has detention space, with consideration to the specific classification of the detainee. It is unlikely that many, if any, of the administrative hearings stemming from the Postville raid will be held in Iowa.

“There is very little detention space here in Iowa,” Arnold said. “This is partially because the detention space is shared between the marshals and ICE. So if a lot of people are being detained by the marshals’ office for criminal proceedings, there aren’t beds available for those in ICE custody.”

While it remains unclear exactly how long federal agencies will be on the temporary site in Waterloo, Arnold indicated that the processing of Postville detainees should be quickly coming to an end.

“We anticipate that we won’t be housing the people [at the temporary detention facilities in Waterloo] past Wednesday night — Thursday morning at the latest,” said Arnold. He then refused to state if or how the facility, which will remain rented by federal agencies past this week, will be used during the remaining time frame.

Dummermuth and Arnold, while commenting that Agriprocessors was “cooperative during the execution of the search warrant,” refused comment on whether any criminal investigation was under way in relation to the company or its leadership. The two also refused to comment on if there would be more arrests in relation to the more than 300 outstanding criminal complaints.

A total of 390 first-shift workers were arrested as a result of the immigration raid. The event, which boasted 697 criminal complaints and arrest warrants for plant employees, is the largest single-location immigration raid in the nation. Nearly 60 people, most of them women, were released under ICE supervision to care for children or due to medical reasons. Those released are wearing electronic monitoring devices. Of those arrested, 290 are Guatemalan, 93 are Mexican, four are Ukrainian and three are Israeli.