BY SHIRLEY PEŅA

DES MOINES, Iowa - Since May hundreds of immigrant workers have been arrested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in raids conducted at four meatpacking plants in central Iowa. These raids come on the heels of the April announcement of a joint program between the INS and packinghouse bosses that allows employers to tap into INS computer data to verify whether a prospective employee is "authorized to work" in the United States. Meat processing giants IBP and Monfort were among the first to enroll.

The federal government moved to deepen its campaign of harassment and intimidation against immigrant workers by sending a letter dated August 15 from U.S. attorney Stephan Rapp to all workers with Latino surnames at the IBP plant in Waterloo, Iowa. "You may have committed violations of the immigration laws and laws relating to employment," the letter read. "If you have something to offer to show our information is incorrect, we would be happy to consider it.... Please contact an immigration agent.... We are willing to consider an agreement where you would plead guilty."

Jerry Heinauer, district director of the INS office in Omaha, told the Des Moines Register, "We're serious about worksite enforcement." This "seriousness" is behind the government's decision to open an INS office in eastern Iowa, as well as a temporary office in Des Moines.

Protests for immigrant rights
Defenders of immigrant rights responded as the government stepped up its campaign against immigrant workers. After the second raid at the IBP Waterloo plant on August 12, more than 100 people gathered outside the jail where the workers were being held to protest a July raid.

Some 30 defenders of immigrant rights participated in an August 21 emergency press conference in Des Moines after the INS letter was sent to Latino workers in Waterloo.

Sandra Soto, director of the Immigrant Rights Project of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), told the media, "We question why due process seems non-existent in this letter. It sends a message that if you belong to a certain class of people or ethnic group, your constitutional rights will not be respected."

Two additional demonstrations were also organized in Waterloo that same day.

The INS conducted another raid on August 24 - this time at the Swift pork packing plant in Marshalltown, Iowa. Activists planning Iowa participation in the October 12 march for immigrant rights in Washington, D.C., found out about the raid and rushed down to the plant.

Despite the cop attempts to block access to a public telephone, the October 12 activists found a cellular phone and alerted Des Moines media to the unfolding INS raid. As a result, the raid was the lead story on all three local news stations that evening -thwarting the government's attempts to downplay the protests against it.

While attempting to pose as victims of hiring undocumented workers, company representative K.T. Miller said at a press conference at the plant that management had contacted the INS last year.

Nearly 900 Swift workers were detained by the INS as they attempted to leave work that day, while almost 300 gathered outside to await news of their friends' and family members' fates. Some joined the October 12 activists who were chanting "No human being is illegal!"

Response of Marshalltown Workers
In response to the INS raid, the Marshalltown chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) called an emergency meeting to try to answer the questions facing families that had relatives caught up in the INS raid. Activists in the October 12 Coalition who are planning a march in Des Moines were invited to attend the meeting and participate in the discussion.

More than 50, predominantly Spanish-speaking workers from the Marshalltown Swift plant attended the meeting. Many said that those arrested faced the possibility of the state taking away their U.S.-born children unless "legal guardians" are found in the next three days. Some of these children also face the possibility of deportation along with their immigrant parents.

One young woman, Shelly, said she was caring for infant children of several of the families that were arrested, along with her own four children.

Some workers spoke of the experiences of some of the Swift workers who hid on company property for several hours as they waited for the INS to leave.

Aracely, a Guatemalan woman, described the case of her husband, who is also from Guatemala. He had been in the United States for seven years and had finally received the government's agreement that he could apply for asylum. But after his arrest the INS refused to release him when he presented his paperwork to immigration agents. When Aracely explained she had no money to get legal help, someone grabbed a hat and over $80 was collected from the audience.

Two young women who are white also addressed the meeting to express their solidarity with those arrested and to explain that not only Latinos are affected by the racist INS campaign. One woman was married to a Latino worker who was facing deportation. The other had just been engaged to another Latino worker.

Many in the audience strongly disagreed with comments that put the blame for the raid on the workers "because they didn't become part of the system." But many people responded positively to speakers who said immigrants had to stand up and fight the government and company attempts to scapegoat them.

Following the discussion, participants at the meeting were invited to join October 12 activists and other supporters of immigrant rights at the armory in Newton, Iowa, where those arrested in the Marshalltown raid were being held.

More than 100 turned out at the Newton armory to protest the detention and pending deportation of the 150 workers arrested. Among the protesters were dozens of Latino workers caught up in the August 24 INS raid at Swift, as well as a sizable contingent of immigrant workers from the IBP plant in Perry, Iowa. The large presence of Latino workers at Newton was a new element in the immigrant rights actions here and was prominently featured in the news coverage.

One woman, Bonnie, said that even though she's married to a Latino she "would have come here regardless of my husband. People come here to be free."

"They don't want to see a lot of numbers," hog farmer Larry Ginter commented. "If everyone goes down and raises Cain, it makes the INS job a lot harder."

As some in the crowd began to sign a song entitled "We Are a Gentle, Angry People," Miguel, at worker at IBP in Perry, leaned over and told Militant reporters, "I'm angry, I'm not gentle."

The federal government responded to the protest actions and criticism surrounding the raids by organizing a press conference where U.S. attorney Stephan Rapp stated, "I thought the demonstrations and criticisms were unfair, frankly. We're not concerned with people's ethnicity." To underscore his point, Rapp introduced a Latino Department of Justice official whose role is to "help open channels between law enforcement and the Hispanic community."  
 
 
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