The number of illegal immigrants detained Monday at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa has risen to 390 in what federal officials now describe as the largest single-site raid of its kind nationwide.
The detainees include 314 men and 76 women, according to figures released this morning by federal authorities. Fifty-six detainees - mostly women with young children - have been released under the supervision of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The detainees included 290 who claimed to be Guatemalans, 93 Mexicans, three Israelis and four Ukrainians. Among the detained were 12 juveniles, six of whom have been released.
Customs and law enforcement agents worked through the night processing the detainees, said Claude Arnold, the ICE special agent in charge of the operation. Detainees were "administratively arrested" but have not yet been criminally charged, he said.
Detainees who are charged with aggravated identity theft, unlawful use of a Social Security number or other offenses will be given lawyers and sent to appearances in one of three makeshift courtrooms at the detainee center in Waterloo, Iowa.
Nationwide, ICE agents arrested 863 people on criminal charges in 2007 and made more than 4,000 administrative arrests - a tenfold increase from five years before, according to the agency's Web site.
A similar factory raid in New Bedford, Massachusetts last year netted 361 arrests, most of whom faced deportation and were separated from their families.
Arnold said authorities were providing the Waterloo detainees with three meals a day and a nightly snack. The women detained were sent to the Hardin County Jail in Eldora. Arnold said that sheriff's deputies at the jail would turn away any media representatives or visitors trying to contact the inmates.
Used with editor permission. Des Moines Register
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Comments: 24
I think the juveniles should have been detained and not released, and that these people do not deserve lawyers. I think the entire lot of them should be deported. Immediately and without recourse.
And then I think the employer should be fined several million dollars plus be under oversight for hiring citizens only for at lest 10 years.
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Unfortunately, it seems that there are a large number of former illegal aliens, having received amnesty, who put up a lot of pressure against stopping these criminals.
The penalty against an employer that knowingly hires people not legal to work should be much greater than it is. Perhaps repeat offenders should be levied a fine so large that it forces them out of business. We don't need their kind; they're bringing down the quality of life for everyone.
Great article! It's hard to blame humans for wishing to better themselves and it's almost a shame to see the extent by which people will go to get an opportunity at a better life. I often ask myself, would I commit crimes to provide for my family? I am not a criminal, but how far would I go to feed my children and provide a safe roof over their head? Would I assume a new name and identity, for the sake of a steady paying job? Maybe. I don't know. I know people in Corporate America who lie and sell their souls everyday for the Almighty Dollar and they do it conscientiously and we (Americans) accept it as a process within the brass ring of success.
I am glad organizations in this country are cracking down on illegal citizenship. I wonder however how they found out the people working within the plant were illegal to begin with, judging that it seems they all had forged documents. If it's that easy to recognize forged identification, then shouldn't the corporations and businesses that hire them be liable for their own ignorance? Someone, somewhere, quite possibly in a suit in a board room, KNOWS they are making a better profit margin by hiring cheap labor and that cheap labor is most likely illegal.
Great work! Stay in touch with me!
~Ozuna
Bobby I will defintely stay in touch.
I've been busy with some other immigration reform related activities so I missed your article when you posted. This raid was a very good thing. Nothing will change as long as the owners and upper management are not held accountable. As fars as the workers...they are culpable as well. Why on earth is it preferable to risk death crossing illegally and imprisonment is detected? Money, is why. Nothing changes until the lure of money dries up. The changes needed are really in Mexico. That corrupt inefficient cesspool of bought and paid for politicians and narco-terrorists is NOT our friend.