Over 300 Now Criminally Charged in Postville Raid

Over 300 of the 389 people who were detained following a federal immigration raid of Agriprocessors in Postville on Monday are now facing criminal charges. It’s a figure that has civil liberties advocates concerned.

“Based on the number of criminal arrests, this is the largest criminal worksite enforcement operation ever in the United States,” Matt Dummermuth, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, said Thursday evening.

Charges in the official complaints vary by individual and include allegations of aggravated identity theft, false use of a social security number, illegal reentry into the United States and fraudulent use of an alien registration card.

Detainees arrested on criminal charges have been provided court-appointed defense attorneys and have had initial court appearances. They are now being held in local jails — nearly 100 in the Linn County jail alone — and are in the custody of the U.S. Marshal’s Office. Those accused will travel back to the temporary detention facility at the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo next week for status hearings in the makeshift court facilities there. Many preliminary hearings have been schedule the following week in the federal building in Cedar Rapids.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa issued a statement in which it condemned “the unnecessary use of criminal prosecutions to coerce hundreds of foreign-born workers…into waiving their rights to individually demonstrate why each of them should be allowed to remain in the United States.”

“A civil deportation proceeding is the best way to address immigration cases, and each case needs to be handled on an individual basis,” said Ben Stone, executive director of the ACLU of Iowa. “By converting the meatpacking plant raid into a mass criminal prosecution, the government is wasting precious legal resources and giving short shrift to the American right of due process, which belongs to all persons, not just citizens.

“It is our understanding that detainees are being threatened with prosecution if they do not waive their right to an individualized deportation hearing and that they may be forced to do so with only minimal opportunity to speak with defense counsel.”

Immigration attorneys sent out an e-mail alert on Wednesday that urged Iowans to contact the U.S. attorney’s office and push for detainees to e allowed to consult with an immigration attorney prior to entering into any agreement with public defenders for criminal charges.

In a telephone conversation on Wednesday, Tim Counts, public affairs officer for the Department of Homeland Security, said evidence of criminal behavior takes precedence over immigration hearings.

Although federal officials previously indicated 390 had been detained as a result of the raid, they are now correcting that figure to 389. Of the detainees, 62 were released on humanitarian grounds and 21 are being held on administrative charges. From these two groups (83 individuals total), 18 were juveniles ranging from age 13 to 17. The juveniles have since been released to an adult or turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Those not facing criminal charges will be placed into administrative immigration removal proceedings that will be conducted under the direction of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at other locations.