Postville Raid
Encyclopedia
The Postville Raid was a raid at the Agriprocessors
Inc. kosher slaughterhouse
and meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa
, USA on May 12, 2008, executed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security
together with other agencies. The raid was the largest single raid of a workplace in U.S. history until that date, and resulted in nearly 400 arrests of immigrant workers with false identity papers who were charged with identity theft
, document fraud
, use of stolen social security number
s, and related offenses. Some 300 workers were convicted on document fraud charges within four days. The majority served a five months prison-sentence before being deported.
Several employees and lower and middle level managers have been indicted on charges of conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants, aggravated identity theft, and child labor violations among others and were convicted, serving prison sentences between 60 days and 41 months. Neither the owner, Aaron Rubashkin, nor his sons Sholom and Heshy Rubashkin, who were in charge of the management of Agriprocessors, have been convicted of immigration and labor law violations. Financial irregularities brought to light by the raid and subsequent investigations led to a conviction of the plant's chief executive Sholom Rubashkin
on bank fraud and related charges and to his being sentenced to 27 years in prison, but his trial on immigration charges was canceled.
According to a retired federal agent a raid on Agriprocessors expected to lead to the arrest of about 100 illegal workers mostly from Eastern Europe had been planned in 2000, but was canceled at the last moment over political concerns. The 2008 raid had been planned for months. An affidavit filed in court before the raid by the Homeland Security Department cited “the issuance of 697 criminal complaints and arrest warrants against persons believed to be current employees” and to have acted criminally. The affidavit cited unnamed sources who alleged that the company employed 15 year old children, that supervisors helped cash checks for workers with false documents, and pressured workers without documents to purchase vehicles and register them in other names. It also cited a case in which a supervisor blindfolded a Guatemalan worker and allegedly struck him with a meat hook, causing no serious injury. Sources quoted in the affidavit and application for search warrant also alleged the existence of a methamphetamine
laboratory at the slaughterhouse, and that employees carried weapons to work. Later press reports do not indicate that a methamphetamine laboratory was found during the search.
The arrested workers were taken to a nearby fairground, the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa
, where they were charged with aggravated identity theft, a criminal offense which carries a mandatory two years sentence, and briefed on their rights and options. The immigrant workers, most of them without prior criminal records, were offered a plea agreement
in exchange for a guilty plea to lesser charges. 297 accepted the agreement and pleaded guilty to document fraud. In an expedited procedure known as “fast track
”, hearings were scheduled over the course of the following three days, in which the judges took guilty pleas from the defendants, who were bound by handcuffs at the wrists as well as chains from their upper torso to their ankles, in groups of ten, and sentenced them immediately, five at a time. Most of the workers were sentenced to five months in prison and were deported afterwards. Before this raid, undocumented people who had no prior records were usually not criminally charged in the aftermath of a raid, but were instantly deported on civil immigration violations. Forty-one of those arrested were allowed to remain in the USA, being granted a special visa, known as U-visa, for those who have suffered violent abuse.
In a decision issued on May 4, 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal prosecutors have inappropriately used aggravated identity theft laws to prosecute undocumented workers. According to the ruling, a prosecutor must be able to show that immigrants knowingly used identification that actually belonged to another person, not merely that they were using fake documents, as in the case of the Postville detainees.
The Rubashkin family
, ultra-Orthodox Jews
of the Lubavitcher hasidic movement, who owned and operated Agriprocessors, has denied any knowledge of criminal activity. Aaron Rubashkin, the owner of the company said that “he had no idea that his workers were illegal and that they had produced what appeared to be legitimate work documents. Getzel Rubashkin, one of his grandsons who worked at the plant, was reported as saying: “Obviously some of the people here were presenting false documents. Immigration authorities somehow picked it up and they did what they are supposed to do, they came and picked them up. God bless them for it.”
According to the ICE, costs of the raid totaled $5.211.092 as of August 21, 2008, not including costs associated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Department of Labor or local Postville authorities.
Several Agriprocessors employees and managers were indicted on charges of conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants and were convicted, whereas related charges brought against the owner, Aaron Rubashkin and his son and CEO of the company, Sholom Rubashkin
were dismissed. However, the financial irregularities that were brought to light by the raid and subsequent investigations lead to a $35 million bank fraud-charge against the plant′s top manager Sholom Rubashkin, who was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison.
In September 2008 Aaron Rubashkin, his son Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the company′s human resources manager, Elizabeth Billmeyer, and two office employees, Laura Althouse and Karina Freund were charged for child labor violations. State child labor charges against Aaron Rubashkin were dropped, and he was never charged federally.
In October 2008 Althouse pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens and one count of aggravated identity theft. She was sentenced to two years federal probation, Freund to one year of probation. Billmeyer was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release for harboring undocumented aliens and accepting counterfeit resident alien cards. After she has agreed to plead to state child labor charges under an agreement with the state, her sentence was reduced to eight months. Former human resources assistant Penny Hanson was sentenced to two years probation on January 7, 2010. State child law charges are still pending against former Agriprocessors supervisor Jeff Heasley, who had his case separated from the other defendants.
On October 30, 2008 Sholom Rubashkin was arrested and charged with conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit, aiding and abetting document fraud, and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. He was released on conditions that he wear a GPS ankle bracelet, limit his travel to the Northern District of Iowa, surrender his passport and his wife′s passport, and provide a $1 million appearance bond with $500,000 to be secured. On November 14, 2008 he was arrested again on a charge of a $35 million bank fraud.
On November 21, 2008 Sholom Rubashkin, Brent Beebe, one of two operations managers at the Agriprocessors plant, poultry managers Hosam Amara and Zeev Levi, and human resources employee Karina Freund were indicted with charges including conspiracy, harboring illegal aliens, aggravated identity theft, document fraud and bank fraud. Beebe pleaded guilty in January 2010 to conspiracy to commit document fraud as part of a plea agreement with the government. In the plea, Beebe admitted that he conspired with former vice president Sholom Rubashkin and others a week before the May 12, 2008 immigration raid at the plant to buy fake identification documents for 19 employees. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison on May 26, 2010. The charges against Freund were dismissed. At the same date, Mitch Meltzer, the plant′s former head accountant, was sentenced to 41-months in prison after his conviction on a federal conspiracy charge. He had admitted in late September 2009, that he conspired with others to make false statements to a bank and that he signed false financial records that were used to mislead the banks. In addition to the prison term, Meltzer was ordered to repay $26.9 million in restitution. Meltzer had been hired by the meat plant′s new owner after having been dismissed by Agriprocessors′ government-appointed trustee, and remained at the company for several months after he pleaded guilty to financial fraud.
Amara and Levi fled the USA. Amara was arrested in Israel
on March 31, 2011. He is facing extradition proceedings. Levi, who supposedly fled to Naharia, Israel, has not been found by authorities to date, and is currently on Homeland Security
's "10 Most Wanted" list. On November 12, 2009 Sholom Rubashkin was convicted in federal court on 86 charges of financial fraud, including bank fraud, mail and wire fraud and money laundering. On June 22, 2010 he was sentenced to serve 27 years in prison and to make $27 million in restitution.
On November 23, 2009, Sholom Rubashkin′s second federal trial on 72 immigration charges was canceled. After winning the financial fraud conviction, federal prosecutors dismissed all immigration-related charges against him. In its motion to dismiss, the U.S. Attorneys Office said any conviction on the immigration charges would have no impact upon his sentence, writing, “dismissal will avoid an extended and expensive trial, conserve limited resources, and lessen the inconvenience to witnesses.” Without that trial, it is unlikely that much of the immigration-related evidence gathered at the Agriprocessors site following the raid, or much of the key witness testimony, will ever be publicly revealed.
On June 7, 2010 Sholom Rubashkin was acquitted in state court of knowingly hiring 29 underage workers at the plant.
On June 30, 2010 Alvaro Julian Garcia Jr., aged 73, was sentenced to 60 days in jail followed by two years of supervised release, for having registered vehicles that were sold to undocumented workers in Postville between 2004 and 2006 as part of a vehicle title scheme.
, which split largely across party lines in its reaction to the events of the raid. Jewish organisations, reacting to the raid as well as to earlier criticism of Agriprocessors′ labor practices and slaughter methods, addressed questions of Jewish ethics, stressing the importance of the commandments (hebrew: mitzvot) concerning the relationship between human beings (hebrew: mitzvot ben adam l'havero), alongside those between human beings and god (hebrew: mitzvot ben adam l'makom).
On the day of the raid, up to 200 protesters had gathered at National Cattle Congress in Waterloo and later held a vigil outside its gates on behalf of the detainees. On July 27, 2008 a rally organized by St. Bridget′s Catholic Church in Postville, Jewish Community Action of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
of Chicago
was held in Postville to protest working conditions in the plant, and to call for Congressional legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrants. About 1,000 people, including Catholic clergy members, rabbis and Jewish activists, and Hispanic immigrants held a interfaith service at St. Bridget′s Catholic Church, and marched through the center of town to the entrance of the meatpacking plant.
The first anniversary of the raid, was marked by a prayer vigil followed by a procession to the National Cattle Congress grounds on May 11, 2009 in Waterloo, on May 12, a prayer service and vigil at St. Bridget′s Catholic Church, followed by a procession to Agriprocessors, took place in Postville. Both events were attended by representatives of Christian and Jewish faiths, who demonstrated their solidarity and spoke out for immigration reform. Prayer vigils were also held on the second anniversary of the raid in Waterloo and Postville.
In “response to the humanitarian and economic disaster” created by the raid, the “Postville Response Coalition”, composed of community organizations, the faith community, and city and county government officials was founded in November 2008 to help individuals and families. It was dissolved on March 31, 2010 after the meatpacking plant had reopened under new ownership and the community began to recover from the raid and the subsequent closure of the plant. A new organization called “Postville First” was created through the impetus of the “Postville Response Coalition”.
, Democratic
member of the House of Representatives
who chairs the House Judiciary Committee′s immigration panel, criticised the raid for the treatment of the workers during the raid itself, for subsequent “coercion” of guilty pleas, and for targeting workers rather than employers. The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) has criticised the three-day series of court hearings in the aftermath of the raid, and has published a copy of a “script” that attorneys were given to use in discussing possible plea agreements with their clients. Officials from the office of United States Attorney
Matt Dummermuth
, whose staff assisted in the preparation of the documents used in the hearings, have defended the proceedings. Bob Teig, a spokesman for Mr. Dummermuth′s office, noted that the scripts were used only to ensure that the individuals being charged with crimes “...were fully advised of their rights and fully understood the consequences of their decisions to plead guilty.”
Also, the raid and prosecutions took place while investigations of the Wage and Hour Division
(WHD) of the Department of Labor
(DOL) for possible violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act
against Agriprocessors were underway. Concern was voiced, that the ICE raid may have had an impact on the ability of the Department of Labor to conduct its investigation of the workplace, and that workers able to assist in the investigation or victims of possible violations may have been among those arrested. According to Democratic Representative from Iowa Bruce Braley
, ICE claimed to have “fully coordinated its activities with other Federal agencies, including the Department of Labor prior to the May 12 operation at the Agriprocessors facility”, whereas the Department of Labor stated in a letter of July 3, that, “‘the raid occurred without the prior knowledge or participation of the Wage and Hour Division’ and that, ‘no advance notice was given to WHD or any other Department of Labor agency prior to the raid’. In addition, the DOL letter states that the May 12 enforcement action ‘changes the complexion of WHD’s investigation of Agriprocessors.’”
Iowa Governor Chet Culver
criticised Agriprocessors in a guest editorial on August 24, 2008, comparing it to Upton Sinclair
′s 1906 novel “The Jungle
”: “Alarming information about working conditions at the Postville plant ... brought to national attention by the raid forces me to believe that, in contrast to our state’s overall economic-development strategy, this company’s owners have deliberately chosen to take the low road in its business practices.” One day later, then presidential candidate Barack Obama
spoke out against Agriprocessors' managers, without mentioning Agriprocessors by name though, while campaigning in Iowa. During Obama′s first year as president, raids on workplaces have been reduced, but deportations of illegal immigrants have increased by nearly 10 percent from the last year of the Bush presidency.
organization PETA
, brought to the attention of the general public by the New York Times, in November 2004, and the latter by the Jewish newspaper The Forward
in 2006. As a result of it, an ethical certification for kosher products, Heksher Tzedek (English: ethical certification), introduced by Rabbi
Morris Allen, was endorsed in 2007 by the Rabbinical Assembly
, the international association of Conservative
rabbis.
After the raid, Modern Orthodox rabbis met in Los Angeles
on May 18, 2008 to discuss creating a heksher (English: kosher certification) for ethical issues.
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly on May 22, 2008 issued a statement, requesting “that consumers of kosher meat evaluate whether it is appropriate to buy and eat meat products produced by the Rubashkin’s label”, adding that “the allegations about the terrible treatment of workers employed by Rubashkin’s have shocked and appalled members of the Conservative movement as well as all people of conscience. As kashrut seeks to diminish animal suffering and offer a humane method of slaughter, it is bitterly ironic that a plant producing kosher meat be guilty of inflicting any kind of human suffering.” On May 23, 2008, the Jewish Labor Committee
went further and “urged consumers of kosher meat products to seek alternatives to the Rubashkin labels” until Agriprocessors lives up “to the responsibilities of corporate citizenship, ends its campaign of worker abuse, and respects the rights of its employees including their legal right to union representation.”´The liberal orthodox Jewish organisation Uri L'Tzedek
, (English: awaken to justice), founded in 2007, called for a boycott of Agriprocessors′ products, which it lifted six weeks later, after Agriprocessors had appointed a former U.S. attorney as compliance officer and had promised changes in their treatment of workers, even though the management had not been replaced, contrary to the announcement made by the plant′s owner immediately after the raid. In September 2008, when the first criminal charges had been brought against Agriprocessors′ owner and managers, the Orthodox Union
, the leading kosher certifier in the United States, threatened to withdraw its certification from the products of Agriprocessors, unless the company puts a new management in place,
Ultra-Orthodox organizations did not take part in the discussion over ethical issues raised by the raid. After Sholom Rubashkin′s arrest, Orthodox rabbis showed their solidarity, but, according to the Forward, “most of the [ultra-]Orthodox rabbis who are supporting Rubashkin ... had never considered providing support to the immigrant workers. But Rabbi Shea Hecht
, a Chabad rabbi ... said he wished he had done more in the raid′s immediate aftermath.”
Agriprocessors
Agriprocessors was the corporate identity of a slaughterhouse and meat-packaging factory based in Postville, Iowa, best known as a facility for the glatt kosher processing of cattle, as well as chicken, turkey, duck, and lamb. Agriprocessors' meat and poultry products were marketed under the brand...
Inc. kosher slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
and meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa
Postville, Iowa
Postville is a city in Allamakee and Clayton Counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. It lies near the junction of four counties and at the intersection of U.S. Routes 18 and 52 and Iowa Highway 51, with airport facilities in the neighboring communities of Waukon, Decorah, Monona, and Prairie du Chien....
, USA on May 12, 2008, executed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security , responsible for identifying, investigating, and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security...
(ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security
United States Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the territory of the United States and protectorates from and responding to...
together with other agencies. The raid was the largest single raid of a workplace in U.S. history until that date, and resulted in nearly 400 arrests of immigrant workers with false identity papers who were charged with identity theft
Identity theft
Identity theft is a form of stealing another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name...
, document fraud
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
, use of stolen social security number
Social Security number
In the United States, a Social Security number is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents under section 205 of the Social Security Act, codified as . The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration, an independent...
s, and related offenses. Some 300 workers were convicted on document fraud charges within four days. The majority served a five months prison-sentence before being deported.
Several employees and lower and middle level managers have been indicted on charges of conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants, aggravated identity theft, and child labor violations among others and were convicted, serving prison sentences between 60 days and 41 months. Neither the owner, Aaron Rubashkin, nor his sons Sholom and Heshy Rubashkin, who were in charge of the management of Agriprocessors, have been convicted of immigration and labor law violations. Financial irregularities brought to light by the raid and subsequent investigations led to a conviction of the plant's chief executive Sholom Rubashkin
Sholom Rubashkin
Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin , an ultra-Orthodox Jew of the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement, is a former executive officer and vice president of Agriprocessors, a now-bankrupt slaughterhouse and meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa formerly owned by his father, Aaron Rubashkin...
on bank fraud and related charges and to his being sentenced to 27 years in prison, but his trial on immigration charges was canceled.
The Raid
With helicopters, buses and vans, hundreds of Federal officials from the ICE together with agents and officers of other federal, state, and local agencies, raided the meat packing plant in the morning hours of 12 May 2008, seizing company records and arresting 389 individuals. According to the U.S. attorney′s office for the Northern District of Iowa, those arrested included “290 Guatemalans, 93 Mexicans, 2 Israelis and 4 Ukrainians”. Eighteen were juveniles.According to a retired federal agent a raid on Agriprocessors expected to lead to the arrest of about 100 illegal workers mostly from Eastern Europe had been planned in 2000, but was canceled at the last moment over political concerns. The 2008 raid had been planned for months. An affidavit filed in court before the raid by the Homeland Security Department cited “the issuance of 697 criminal complaints and arrest warrants against persons believed to be current employees” and to have acted criminally. The affidavit cited unnamed sources who alleged that the company employed 15 year old children, that supervisors helped cash checks for workers with false documents, and pressured workers without documents to purchase vehicles and register them in other names. It also cited a case in which a supervisor blindfolded a Guatemalan worker and allegedly struck him with a meat hook, causing no serious injury. Sources quoted in the affidavit and application for search warrant also alleged the existence of a methamphetamine
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...
laboratory at the slaughterhouse, and that employees carried weapons to work. Later press reports do not indicate that a methamphetamine laboratory was found during the search.
The arrested workers were taken to a nearby fairground, the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa
Waterloo, Iowa
Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census the population decreased by 0.5% to 68,406. Waterloo is part of the Waterloo – Cedar Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is the more populous of the two...
, where they were charged with aggravated identity theft, a criminal offense which carries a mandatory two years sentence, and briefed on their rights and options. The immigrant workers, most of them without prior criminal records, were offered a plea agreement
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
in exchange for a guilty plea to lesser charges. 297 accepted the agreement and pleaded guilty to document fraud. In an expedited procedure known as “fast track
Fast Track
Fast Track is an informal English phrase meaning "the quickest and most direct route to achievement of a goal, as in competing for professional advancement".Fast Track may also refer to:* Fast Track, a FoxBusiness.com show hosted by Anna Gilligan...
”, hearings were scheduled over the course of the following three days, in which the judges took guilty pleas from the defendants, who were bound by handcuffs at the wrists as well as chains from their upper torso to their ankles, in groups of ten, and sentenced them immediately, five at a time. Most of the workers were sentenced to five months in prison and were deported afterwards. Before this raid, undocumented people who had no prior records were usually not criminally charged in the aftermath of a raid, but were instantly deported on civil immigration violations. Forty-one of those arrested were allowed to remain in the USA, being granted a special visa, known as U-visa, for those who have suffered violent abuse.
In a decision issued on May 4, 2009 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal prosecutors have inappropriately used aggravated identity theft laws to prosecute undocumented workers. According to the ruling, a prosecutor must be able to show that immigrants knowingly used identification that actually belonged to another person, not merely that they were using fake documents, as in the case of the Postville detainees.
The Rubashkin family
Rubashkin family
The Rubashkin family is a family of American ultra-Orthodox Jews of the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement of Brooklyn, New York, headed by Aaron Rubashkin. Members of the family were or are active in various family businesses, most of them in the family's main business, kosher meat, for which they...
, ultra-Orthodox Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
of the Lubavitcher hasidic movement, who owned and operated Agriprocessors, has denied any knowledge of criminal activity. Aaron Rubashkin, the owner of the company said that “he had no idea that his workers were illegal and that they had produced what appeared to be legitimate work documents. Getzel Rubashkin, one of his grandsons who worked at the plant, was reported as saying: “Obviously some of the people here were presenting false documents. Immigration authorities somehow picked it up and they did what they are supposed to do, they came and picked them up. God bless them for it.”
According to the ICE, costs of the raid totaled $5.211.092 as of August 21, 2008, not including costs associated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Department of Labor or local Postville authorities.
Impact
The raid had a significant impact on the Postville community. The town, with a census population of only 2,273, lost a large percentage of its population due to the arrests. As a result of the difficulties Agriprocessors faced after the raid, the plant stopped slaughtering cattle in October 2008, and filed for bankruptcy on November 5, 2008. The City Council declared Postville a humanitarian and economic disaster area, but federal officials said the town didn't qualify for help. Agriprocessors was bought at auction in July 2009 and has resumed production under the new name “Agri Star” on a lower scale.Several Agriprocessors employees and managers were indicted on charges of conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants and were convicted, whereas related charges brought against the owner, Aaron Rubashkin and his son and CEO of the company, Sholom Rubashkin
Sholom Rubashkin
Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin , an ultra-Orthodox Jew of the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement, is a former executive officer and vice president of Agriprocessors, a now-bankrupt slaughterhouse and meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa formerly owned by his father, Aaron Rubashkin...
were dismissed. However, the financial irregularities that were brought to light by the raid and subsequent investigations lead to a $35 million bank fraud-charge against the plant′s top manager Sholom Rubashkin, who was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Indictments and Convictions
On July 3, 2008 two senior supervisors, Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, supervisor of the beef kill department and three other departments, and Martin De La Rosa-Loera, supervisor of the poultry kill department and three other departments, were arrested at the Agriprocessors plant. They were charged with aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identity documents, and encouraging aliens to illegally reside in the United States. Guerrero-Espinoza was also charged with aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. In late August 2008, Guerrero-Espinoza reached a deal with federal prosecutors and was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison. The plea deal allowed him to avoid deportation and for his wife and children to return to the US following his prison term. The sentence included a two year mandatory ruling for aggravated identity theft. After the ruling of the Supreme Court issued on May 4, 2009, he made a request for the reduction of his sentence. Aggravated identity theft charges had formerly been dismissed against human resources employee Laura Althouse, supervisor Brent Beebe and CEO Sholom Rubashkin, the motion contended. In late February 2009, De La Rosa-Loera was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison. Both Guerrero-Espinoza and De La Rosa-Loera, after being released from jail, have gone back to work at the meatpacking plant under the new ownership.In September 2008 Aaron Rubashkin, his son Sholom Rubashkin, as well as the company′s human resources manager, Elizabeth Billmeyer, and two office employees, Laura Althouse and Karina Freund were charged for child labor violations. State child labor charges against Aaron Rubashkin were dropped, and he was never charged federally.
In October 2008 Althouse pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens and one count of aggravated identity theft. She was sentenced to two years federal probation, Freund to one year of probation. Billmeyer was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release for harboring undocumented aliens and accepting counterfeit resident alien cards. After she has agreed to plead to state child labor charges under an agreement with the state, her sentence was reduced to eight months. Former human resources assistant Penny Hanson was sentenced to two years probation on January 7, 2010. State child law charges are still pending against former Agriprocessors supervisor Jeff Heasley, who had his case separated from the other defendants.
On October 30, 2008 Sholom Rubashkin was arrested and charged with conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit, aiding and abetting document fraud, and aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. He was released on conditions that he wear a GPS ankle bracelet, limit his travel to the Northern District of Iowa, surrender his passport and his wife′s passport, and provide a $1 million appearance bond with $500,000 to be secured. On November 14, 2008 he was arrested again on a charge of a $35 million bank fraud.
On November 21, 2008 Sholom Rubashkin, Brent Beebe, one of two operations managers at the Agriprocessors plant, poultry managers Hosam Amara and Zeev Levi, and human resources employee Karina Freund were indicted with charges including conspiracy, harboring illegal aliens, aggravated identity theft, document fraud and bank fraud. Beebe pleaded guilty in January 2010 to conspiracy to commit document fraud as part of a plea agreement with the government. In the plea, Beebe admitted that he conspired with former vice president Sholom Rubashkin and others a week before the May 12, 2008 immigration raid at the plant to buy fake identification documents for 19 employees. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison on May 26, 2010. The charges against Freund were dismissed. At the same date, Mitch Meltzer, the plant′s former head accountant, was sentenced to 41-months in prison after his conviction on a federal conspiracy charge. He had admitted in late September 2009, that he conspired with others to make false statements to a bank and that he signed false financial records that were used to mislead the banks. In addition to the prison term, Meltzer was ordered to repay $26.9 million in restitution. Meltzer had been hired by the meat plant′s new owner after having been dismissed by Agriprocessors′ government-appointed trustee, and remained at the company for several months after he pleaded guilty to financial fraud.
Amara and Levi fled the USA. Amara was arrested in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
on March 31, 2011. He is facing extradition proceedings. Levi, who supposedly fled to Naharia, Israel, has not been found by authorities to date, and is currently on Homeland Security
Homeland security
Homeland security is an umbrella term for security efforts to protect states against terrorist activity. Specifically, is a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the U.S., reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do...
's "10 Most Wanted" list. On November 12, 2009 Sholom Rubashkin was convicted in federal court on 86 charges of financial fraud, including bank fraud, mail and wire fraud and money laundering. On June 22, 2010 he was sentenced to serve 27 years in prison and to make $27 million in restitution.
On November 23, 2009, Sholom Rubashkin′s second federal trial on 72 immigration charges was canceled. After winning the financial fraud conviction, federal prosecutors dismissed all immigration-related charges against him. In its motion to dismiss, the U.S. Attorneys Office said any conviction on the immigration charges would have no impact upon his sentence, writing, “dismissal will avoid an extended and expensive trial, conserve limited resources, and lessen the inconvenience to witnesses.” Without that trial, it is unlikely that much of the immigration-related evidence gathered at the Agriprocessors site following the raid, or much of the key witness testimony, will ever be publicly revealed.
On June 7, 2010 Sholom Rubashkin was acquitted in state court of knowingly hiring 29 underage workers at the plant.
On June 30, 2010 Alvaro Julian Garcia Jr., aged 73, was sentenced to 60 days in jail followed by two years of supervised release, for having registered vehicles that were sold to undocumented workers in Postville between 2004 and 2006 as part of a vehicle title scheme.
Reactions
The raid has received wide national publicity. Lawmakers and labor union representatives criticised the Bush administration as disproportionately targeting workers instead of employers. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with Agriprocessors′ workers and community leaders in Postville, and Congressional hearings were held before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary CommitteeUnited States House Committee on the Judiciary
The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, administrative agencies and Federal law enforcement...
, which split largely across party lines in its reaction to the events of the raid. Jewish organisations, reacting to the raid as well as to earlier criticism of Agriprocessors′ labor practices and slaughter methods, addressed questions of Jewish ethics, stressing the importance of the commandments (hebrew: mitzvot) concerning the relationship between human beings (hebrew: mitzvot ben adam l'havero), alongside those between human beings and god (hebrew: mitzvot ben adam l'makom).
On the day of the raid, up to 200 protesters had gathered at National Cattle Congress in Waterloo and later held a vigil outside its gates on behalf of the detainees. On July 27, 2008 a rally organized by St. Bridget′s Catholic Church in Postville, Jewish Community Action of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
Jewish Council on Urban Affairs is a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago, Ill., that works with diverse neighborhoods and community groups to battle discrimination, anti-Semitism, poverty and other forms of oppression...
of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
was held in Postville to protest working conditions in the plant, and to call for Congressional legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrants. About 1,000 people, including Catholic clergy members, rabbis and Jewish activists, and Hispanic immigrants held a interfaith service at St. Bridget′s Catholic Church, and marched through the center of town to the entrance of the meatpacking plant.
The first anniversary of the raid, was marked by a prayer vigil followed by a procession to the National Cattle Congress grounds on May 11, 2009 in Waterloo, on May 12, a prayer service and vigil at St. Bridget′s Catholic Church, followed by a procession to Agriprocessors, took place in Postville. Both events were attended by representatives of Christian and Jewish faiths, who demonstrated their solidarity and spoke out for immigration reform. Prayer vigils were also held on the second anniversary of the raid in Waterloo and Postville.
In “response to the humanitarian and economic disaster” created by the raid, the “Postville Response Coalition”, composed of community organizations, the faith community, and city and county government officials was founded in November 2008 to help individuals and families. It was dissolved on March 31, 2010 after the meatpacking plant had reopened under new ownership and the community began to recover from the raid and the subsequent closure of the plant. A new organization called “Postville First” was created through the impetus of the “Postville Response Coalition”.
Reactions of Political figures
Zoe LofgrenZoe Lofgren
Zoe Lofgren is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1995. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is based in San Jose.-Early life, education, and early career:...
, Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
member of the House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
who chairs the House Judiciary Committee′s immigration panel, criticised the raid for the treatment of the workers during the raid itself, for subsequent “coercion” of guilty pleas, and for targeting workers rather than employers. The American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
(ACLU) has criticised the three-day series of court hearings in the aftermath of the raid, and has published a copy of a “script” that attorneys were given to use in discussing possible plea agreements with their clients. Officials from the office of United States Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
Matt Dummermuth
United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa has jurisdiction over fifty-two of Iowa's ninety-nine counties. It is subject to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa (in case citations, N.D. Iowa) has jurisdiction...
, whose staff assisted in the preparation of the documents used in the hearings, have defended the proceedings. Bob Teig, a spokesman for Mr. Dummermuth′s office, noted that the scripts were used only to ensure that the individuals being charged with crimes “...were fully advised of their rights and fully understood the consequences of their decisions to plead guilty.”
Also, the raid and prosecutions took place while investigations of the Wage and Hour Division
Wage and Hour Division
The Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor is the federal office responsible for enforcing federal labor laws. The Division was formed with the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938...
(WHD) of the Department of Labor
United States Department of Labor
The United States Department of Labor is a Cabinet department of the United States government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and some economic statistics. Many U.S. states also have such departments. The...
(DOL) for possible violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act
Fair Labor Standards Act
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is a federal statute of the United States. The FLSA established a national minimum wage, guaranteed 'time-and-a-half' for overtime in certain jobs, and prohibited most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor," a term that is defined in the statute...
against Agriprocessors were underway. Concern was voiced, that the ICE raid may have had an impact on the ability of the Department of Labor to conduct its investigation of the workplace, and that workers able to assist in the investigation or victims of possible violations may have been among those arrested. According to Democratic Representative from Iowa Bruce Braley
Bruce Braley
Bruce Braley is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district lies in northeastern Iowa and includes Davenport, Bettendorf, Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Dubuque, and Clinton....
, ICE claimed to have “fully coordinated its activities with other Federal agencies, including the Department of Labor prior to the May 12 operation at the Agriprocessors facility”, whereas the Department of Labor stated in a letter of July 3, that, “‘the raid occurred without the prior knowledge or participation of the Wage and Hour Division’ and that, ‘no advance notice was given to WHD or any other Department of Labor agency prior to the raid’. In addition, the DOL letter states that the May 12 enforcement action ‘changes the complexion of WHD’s investigation of Agriprocessors.’”
Iowa Governor Chet Culver
Chet Culver
Chester John "Chet" Culver was the 41st Governor of Iowa, from 2007 to 2011. He was also elected as the Federal Liaison for the Democratic Governors Association for 2008-2009. He founded the Chet Culver Group, an energy sector consulting firm, in 2011.-Early life and education:Culver was born in...
criticised Agriprocessors in a guest editorial on August 24, 2008, comparing it to Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
′s 1906 novel “The Jungle
The Jungle
The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by journalist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel with the intention of portraying the life of the immigrant in the United States, but readers were more concerned with the large portion of the book pertaining to the corruption of the American meatpacking...
”: “Alarming information about working conditions at the Postville plant ... brought to national attention by the raid forces me to believe that, in contrast to our state’s overall economic-development strategy, this company’s owners have deliberately chosen to take the low road in its business practices.” One day later, then presidential candidate Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
spoke out against Agriprocessors' managers, without mentioning Agriprocessors by name though, while campaigning in Iowa. During Obama′s first year as president, raids on workplaces have been reduced, but deportations of illegal immigrants have increased by nearly 10 percent from the last year of the Bush presidency.
Reactions of Jewish organizations
Several Jewish organisations had voiced concern about Agriprocessors′ meat products meeting ethical standards of kashrut ever since the first criticism of its slaughtering methods and working conditions were made public, the former by the animal rightsAnimal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
organization PETA
Peta
Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
, brought to the attention of the general public by the New York Times, in November 2004, and the latter by the Jewish newspaper The Forward
The Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
in 2006. As a result of it, an ethical certification for kosher products, Heksher Tzedek (English: ethical certification), introduced by Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Morris Allen, was endorsed in 2007 by the Rabbinical Assembly
Rabbinical Assembly
The Rabbinical Assembly is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and...
, the international association of Conservative
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
rabbis.
After the raid, Modern Orthodox rabbis met in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
on May 18, 2008 to discuss creating a heksher (English: kosher certification) for ethical issues.
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly on May 22, 2008 issued a statement, requesting “that consumers of kosher meat evaluate whether it is appropriate to buy and eat meat products produced by the Rubashkin’s label”, adding that “the allegations about the terrible treatment of workers employed by Rubashkin’s have shocked and appalled members of the Conservative movement as well as all people of conscience. As kashrut seeks to diminish animal suffering and offer a humane method of slaughter, it is bitterly ironic that a plant producing kosher meat be guilty of inflicting any kind of human suffering.” On May 23, 2008, the Jewish Labor Committee
Jewish Labor Committee
The Jewish Labor Committee is an American secular Jewish organization dedicated to promoting labor union interests in Jewish communities, and Jewish interests within unions. The organization is headquartered in New York City, with local/regional offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago...
went further and “urged consumers of kosher meat products to seek alternatives to the Rubashkin labels” until Agriprocessors lives up “to the responsibilities of corporate citizenship, ends its campaign of worker abuse, and respects the rights of its employees including their legal right to union representation.”´The liberal orthodox Jewish organisation Uri L'Tzedek
Uri L'Tzedek
Uri L’Tzedek is a nonprofit social justice organization that aims to inspire and mobilize the Jewish community toward tikkun olam, or “repairing the world.” The organization, whose name is Hebrew for “Awaken to Justice,” specifically aims to support, challenge, and inspire the Orthodox Jewish...
, (English: awaken to justice), founded in 2007, called for a boycott of Agriprocessors′ products, which it lifted six weeks later, after Agriprocessors had appointed a former U.S. attorney as compliance officer and had promised changes in their treatment of workers, even though the management had not been replaced, contrary to the announcement made by the plant′s owner immediately after the raid. In September 2008, when the first criminal charges had been brought against Agriprocessors′ owner and managers, the Orthodox Union
Orthodox Union
The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America , more popularly known as the Orthodox Union , is one of the oldest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. It is best known for its kosher food preparation supervision service...
, the leading kosher certifier in the United States, threatened to withdraw its certification from the products of Agriprocessors, unless the company puts a new management in place,
Ultra-Orthodox organizations did not take part in the discussion over ethical issues raised by the raid. After Sholom Rubashkin′s arrest, Orthodox rabbis showed their solidarity, but, according to the Forward, “most of the [ultra-]Orthodox rabbis who are supporting Rubashkin ... had never considered providing support to the immigrant workers. But Rabbi Shea Hecht
Shea Hecht
Shea Hecht is the chairman of the board of the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education and a leading Chabad rabbi. He is the son of the late Rabbi Jacob J. Hecht, one of the closest confidants of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Grand Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.- Biography...
, a Chabad rabbi ... said he wished he had done more in the raid′s immediate aftermath.”
Further reading
- Mark A. Grey, Michele Devlin and Aaron Goldsmith: Postville, U.S.A.: Surviving Diversity in Small-Town America. Gemma Media, Boston 2009 ISBN 9781934848647
External links
- Website of the documentary abUSed - The Postville Raid (in English and Spanish).
- Immigration Raids: Postville and beyond. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law of the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives one hundred tenth Congress second Session, July 24, 2008 Serial No. 110–198
- The Postville Project Luther CollegeLuther College (Iowa)Luther College is a four-year, residential liberal arts institution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, located in Decorah, Iowa, USA...
and University of Northern IowaUniversity of Northern IowaThe University of Northern Iowa is a college located in Cedar Falls, Iowa, United States. UNI offers more than 120 majors across the colleges of Business Administration, Education, Humanities and Fine Arts, Natural Sciences, and Social and Behavioral sciences, and graduate college.UNI has...