Bushites ICE Raid Ignored Company Crimes Including Violations of Child Labor Laws
"In this case, as in many others like it, many of the workers appear to have been seriously exploited. The AP reported that the plant's management 'improperly withheld money from employees' paychecks for 'immigration fees,' didn't allow workers to use the restroom during 10-hour shifts, physically abused workers and didn't compensate them for overtime work.'
"According to MSNBC, workers at the plant were routinely started at $5 per hour for their first three or four months on the job and then raised to $6, still well below Iowa's minimum wage of $7.25.
"Sholom Rubashkin, whose family owns the company and who is described as a "top official" at the Postville plant, is a major Republican political donor, supporting the kind of politicos who champion these kinds of immigration crackdowns.
"But Rubashkin is unlikely to be troubled by the action. After the raid gave his firm at least temporary relief from U.S. labor laws and pesky union organizers, the plant opened up the next morning ready for business -- it lost less than a single day's revenues. If recent history is any guide, Agriprocessors, Inc. won't even be fined. Despite the fact that 80 percent of its workforce was undocumented, the company is claiming that it had no knowledge of the violations. Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, released a statement noting that in 2007, DHS 'fined only 17 employers for hiring undocumented workers.' He added: 'At least 7 million immigrants in the U.S. are employed illegally by a total of 6 million U.S. businesses, and DHS can find only 17 companies to fine?'
"Two weeks earlier, as the New York Times' Nina Bernstein reported, a group of former detainees had sued Michael Chertoff for putting 'hundreds of thousands of people a year in substandard and inconsistent conditions while the government decides whether to deport them, leaving them subject to inadequate medical care and abuse.'
"Activists charged that the Bush administration staged the raid to draw attention from those stories, a strategy it is well known to employ when critical attention threatens its policies."
"As the Washington Post reported: "Monday's raid on the Agriprocessors plant, in which 389 immigrants were arrested and many held at a cattle exhibit hall, was the Bush administration's largest crackdown on illegal workers at a single site. It has upended this tree-lined community, which calls itself "Hometown to the World." Half of the school system's 600 students were absent Tuesday, including 90 percent of Hispanic children, because their parents were arrested or in hiding.
" 'They don't go after employers. They don't put CEOs in jail,' complained the Postville Community Schools superintendent, David Strudthoff, 51, who said the sudden incarceration of more than 10 percent of the town's population of 2,300 'is like a natural disaster -- only this one is manmade.'
"He added, 'In the end, it is the greater population that will suffer and the workforce that will be held accountable.' "
Democrats in Congress complained about the raid: "Democrats are criticizing a recent government work-site raid targeted at illegal employees, asserting that the action separated parents from their children and devastated the local community. They called for a greater focus on employers who are breaking the law.
"'Children are paying the highest price of all for our broken immigration policies,' said Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas. 'They are being torn from their families. This represents a moral and humanitarian crisis for this nation.'
"But Democrats say the DHS is putting too much emphasis on rounding up workers and not enough on targeting their employers.
" 'We have adopted as a country an enforcement-only policy' said Rep. Tim Bishop, D-New York. 'Why is it that so much for our enforcement focuses on workers and not on management?' "
"In a raid in May, 389 illegal immigrant workers were detained there in the largest immigration enforcement operation ever at a single workplace.
"Mr. Neil said that investigators had found multiple child labor law violations for each under-age worker at the plant. They included employing minors in prohibited occupations, exposing them to hazardous chemicals, and making them work with prohibited tools like knives and saws, he said.
"Kerry Koonce, a spokeswoman for Iowa Workforce Development, the state labor department, said the number of under-age workers was by far the largest in an Iowa child labor case.
"If convicted on criminal charges, the company could face fines of $500,000 to $1 million, Ms. Koonce said.
"On Friday, labor officials turned over a confidential report on the investigation to the Iowa attorney general, Tom Miller, who will now decide whether to bring charges. Mr. Neil said he had urged Mr. Miller to prosecute "to the full extent of the law," making it very likely that charges would be brought.
"At least 24 under-age workers, as young as 13, were arrested in the raid in May. Others who were not caught in the morning raid because they worked at night stopped going to jobs at the plant.
"Hundreds of workers, mostly illegal immigrants from Guatemala, were prosecuted on criminal document fraud charges after the raid. Immigration authorities dismissed criminal charges against the minors, although many were put in civil deportation proceedings.
"After the raid, many of the young workers said they felt they had nothing to lose in speaking out about their work at the plant. In interviews, they said they were forced to work long hours on night shifts, sometimes up to 17 hours a day, and were not paid all of their overtime. They said they were put to work on racing production lines using knives to cut meat and poultry with little or no safety training.
"Elmer L., a Guatemalan who said he was 16 when he started work at the plant, said he was kicked by an Agriprocessors supervisor, causing one of his knives to cut his elbow. He asked that his last name not be used because he is a minor.
"But Iowa law requires employers to make an extra effort to determine the date of birth of workers who could be minors, including asking for a birth certificate or other official proof of age, labor officials said.
"In recent months, Iowa labor officials have been criticized by unions and immigrant groups who said that enforcement was lax at Agriprocessors and that labor inspectors had responded to violations with light fines.
"Some under-age workers could benefit if the attorney general presses charges against Agriprocessors. Sonia Parras Konrad, an Iowa immigration lawyer, has been working with investigators to get more than two dozen of the workers special four-year visas, known as U-visas, which are given to victims who cooperate with criminal investigations.
"A federal labor investigation is also under way." The feds certainly took their time, didn't they?
Another example of the Bush regime protecting Republican corporate profit making at any cost..
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