On May 12, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, detaining 389 (more than one in three) of its workers for suspected immigration violations, the largest roundup of its kind.
Things went from bad to worse late last week when the Iowa attorney general’s office filed a complaint against five executives at Agriprocessors, Inc., alleging that 32 of those employees were not only illegal immigrants, but minors—some younger than 16. Their duties included handling poisonous chemicals like chlorine and dangerous substances like dry ice. They also operated meat grinders, circular saws, mechanical shears, conveyor belts, and high-pressure washers, according to the complaint, which charged the managers with 9,311 violations of the state’s child labor laws.
Chaim Abrahams, a spokesman for Agriprocessors, the country’s largest supplier of kosher meat and poultry, told a reporter with the Des Moines Register that the young workers lied about their age in order to get employment, that the company was not at fault, and that its leaders looked forward to their day in court. A hearing was scheduled for today (no word yet on the outcome).
It’s interesting to compare the treatment of company officers to that of the workers swept up in the raid. On May 23—only 11 days after they were hauled away to temporary trailers in a cordoned-off fairgrounds—the slaughterhouse employees were shackled at the wrists, waists, and ankles, then chained together and marched before a judge, who promptly gave 270 of them five-month jail sentences, even though many did not fully understand the charges they faced, said court interpreter Erik Camayd-Freixas in his chilling eyewitness account of the disgraceful process (no cameras were allowed in the courtroom).
Meanwhile, work at Agriprocessors continues as usual. Abrahams told the newspaper that he didn’t see why production at the plant should be interrupted.