Vol. 73/No. 21      June 1, 2009

Last year’s raid evoked widespread outrage among working people, who immediately responded with broad protest actions.

Marchers, most of them U.S.-born, came today from throughout Iowa and from Minnesota and Illinois. Dozens of students from nearby Luther College took part.

Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish clergy led a testimony and prayer vigil before the march, in which some of the meatpacking workers spoke out against the raid.

The protest took place less than two weeks after May Day actions for immigrant rights in dozens of U.S. cities and a week after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision that greatly restricts the use of felony “identity theft” laws to prosecute immigrants.

In 2004 Congress adopted “identity theft” laws against using social security numbers and other identification of other people and imposing a two-year prison term.

In a blow to government harassment of immigrant workers, the Supreme Court ruled that these laws may not be used against immigrants unless the government can prove the immigrant knew that the means of identification belonged to another person.

In 2008 federal prosecutors used the threat of felony convictions for identity theft to railroad hundreds of Agriprocessors workers to prison following the largest factory immigration raid at a single site in U.S. history.

After the mass arrests, workers, shackled hand and foot, were herded into the Cattle Congress fairgrounds in nearby Waterloo for group trials. Some 300 were hastily convicted and sentenced over the course of just four days. Most pleaded guilty to lesser charges after being threatened with prosecution for felony identity theft.

Many were given five-month jail sentences followed by deportation to Guatemala or Mexico. Others were immediately deported. A few have been given work visas in exchange for testifying against the company.

Iowa City attorney Rockne Cole hailed the high court decision and told the Des Moines Register that without the threat of the identity theft charges, some of the workers would probably have pled “not guilty” and fought their cases in court.

Following the decision, the American Immigration Lawyers Association called on Attorney General Eric Holder to dismiss the guilty pleas in cases where the threat of prosecution under the identity theft laws “was a miscarriage of justice.”

There had been some indication of brewing struggle at the plant prior to the raid. In 2007 some 200 workers walked off the job after the company had announced it received “no-match” letters from the Social Security Administration. A number of workers had been working with the United Food and Commercial Workers union to unionize the plant at the time of the raid.

On the day of raid, 200 people demonstrated outside the makeshift prison where the workers were being held. Local protests included workers who were Black, white, and Latino as well as high school students.

Over the next several weeks, marches and rallies grew in size and scope, attracting workers and youth from the broader region. In late July 1,500 marched through this town of 3,000.

Hundreds of people sent messages and financial contributions to those affected by the arrests. More than $1 million in contributions from people in 49 states has been received by St. Bridget’s Catholic Church, which centralized relief efforts.

The government’s attack has had a devastating impact not only on those arrested and deported, but on their friends, families, and coworkers, and on the small town they lived in. The town’s population has dropped from 3,000 before the raid to 1,800 today.

However, a fighting spirit was evident at the Postville protest. Reporter Jens Manuel Krogstad of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier wrote, “Despite the criticisms and remembrances, smiles far outnumbered tears on May 12 this year.”

“More than anything, we demand of the government to give justice and equal treatment for all,” said Sebastian Upun, as he prepared to march toward the Agriprocessors plant, where he worked until the raid.

Noemí Urtado, 28, a single mother born in Cocula, Mexico, pushed her daughter in a stroller in the protest, bearing the electronic monitoring ankle bracelet she has been required to wear since she was arrested in the raid. Other former Agriprocessors workers fighting deportation also marched.

Brian McKenna, a 47-year-old laid-off worker from a John Deere plant, drove four hours to participate in the march, explaining, “I’m here because I’ve been in the same boat. I’ve been out of work. I’ve been hungry. I’ve been exploited.”

Vigils in Iowa also took place in Des Moines, Waterloo, and Sioux City to mark the raid’s anniversary.
 
 
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