Postville, IA – Experts: Management At Rubashkin Will Likely Face Charges

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    Postville, IA – Federal authorities are tight-lipped about whether managers at the Postville meat processing plant could face charges for employing or mistreating immigrants who were in the United States illegally.

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    But immigration experts who closely follow raids across the country say they think charges will come soon.

    “The raid is usually another step in the investigation of management,” said Lori Chesser, a Des Moines immigration lawyer who is on the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Interior Enforcement Committee and a liaison committee for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    ICE officials usually seek to gain information in raids that can be used to charge management, Chesser said.

    If immigrants cooperate with investigators, they can get a visa in certain circumstances or reduced charges in a plea agreement, she said. Management is usually not charged during the raid, she said.

    Staff with the U.S. attorney’s office in Cedar Rapids have refused to say whether they intend to charge members of the Rubashkin family or other Agriprocessors managers. Workers told federal agents that Aaron Rubashkin, who lives in New York, is the owner, and that day-to-day operations are led by Heseshy and Sholom Rubashkin.

    But in an affidavit written before the raid, special agents say they have gathered evidence over the past two years that Agriprocessors harbored and hired illegal immigrants, both felonies.

    “This affidavit sets forth some, but not all, of the information ICE and other law enforcement officers possess concerning potential violations of the above-referenced statutes and potentially other criminal laws,” wrote David Hoagland, an ICE senior special agen


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    13 Comments
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    happy
    happy
    15 years ago

    what do you say to something like this they do crazy things for more money and dont think. i wish them good luck hashem should bless them.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    hello u all wake up and smell the coffee

    the only thing the goverment is interested in is money, fines and publicity (putting ownersin jail) this has nothing to do with “homeland security” or “illegal immigration” both of which the goverment cannot enforce and cannot do so they go after owners and managers of comanies.

    and they go after the big ones so they can get fines big money.

    if they were interested in “homeland security” or “illegal immigration” they would come to new york and los angles and arrest all the illegal ones and they would close down all the resturaunts all the hotels and all the constrction in both cities.

    oh and all the cleaning ladies that clean all your houses too.

    so hashem should help hershy and sholom and protect them from these viciu=ous accusations.

    and maytheu come out stronger and go from strenth to strenth

    chazak chazak venischazeik

    Double Standards
    Double Standards
    15 years ago

    A similar raid happened a few years back in FreshDirect in Long Island City and about the same number of illegals were arrested. No one at the company was charged in that case. Why the double standard? Could it be the Yarmulka on the head, or the fact that they are producing KOSHER meat? Jews in this country, wake up!!!! This is your medina shel chesed at work.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    This country is most schizophrenic. All of the Congressman save a handful want to tear down any impediments to illegal immigration and give us another amnesty number. Both parties want the same thing. Thousands — no millions of immigrants walk the street and linger at the LIRR stations and nothing happens. Hospitals have to give them free services while you and I pay for all of this. So why are they hassling Rubaskim? The unions have votes in an election and they have been stymied from unionizing the plant. Their cronies get to the FBI and ICE an presto a raid. While all along if someone wants to really get rid of them the liberals get all upset. What a silly country this USA.

    MAYER
    MAYER
    15 years ago

    Any additionel charge will be passed down to the kosher consumer. wait and see.

    karcirate
    karcirate
    15 years ago

    Double Standards – if you didn’t notice, no one has been charged with anything yet. Stop whining.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    It is illegal to hire and harbor illegal aliens.

    It is also illegal to discriminate against potential employees that present a drivers license and a social security card,(both are widely available for $20) or any other documents listed on the I-9 instructions.

    Agriprocessors management should be not be charged if they were presented with documents and retained I-9 forms for their employees, even if those documents are forgeries. It is also not the employers obligation to maintain copies of the documents, only the I-9 form.

    ess un fress
    ess un fress
    15 years ago

    they wanted to get away with it cheap by paying 5 dollars an hour. this is the chances they took and it bit them. thats why some places will NOT hire illegals!!

    Dina
    Dina
    15 years ago

    There are very serious concerns, CHILUL HASHEM not being the least of them.

    Yes, they hired illegally, many people do. Yet not everyone SERIOUSLY MISTREATS OR PHYSICALLY ABUSES the workers who they hire for a pittance. That is totally and moralistically unacceptable from any point of view.

    NEXT— what about the illegal drugs that were being produced from the plant? And the weapons that were there?

    Protect the Rubashkins? WHY would anyone strive to protect people who either knew and didn’t act, or “pretended to close their eyes” to the truth here. The Orei Miklat have ceased to exist, time to answer for crimes committed. And yes, drugs DO kill people!

    Even if you can justify hiring illegals, you cannot justify the other stuff.

    Trying to convince yourself that the stories are being made up in order to practice anti-semitism???

    Grow up and teach people to accept responsibility for their choices.

    There is too large a price to pay for not doing so.

    WHERE ARE OUR RABBINICAL LEADERS AT TIMES LIKE THESE? SPEAK UP AND LEAD THE PEOPLE TO CONDUCT THEIR BUSINESSES K’HALACHA. That refers to all aspects of halacha.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Dina,

    I hope ur cleaning lady goes to the department of labor when u fire her (for stealing).

    You will find out how cynicaly and how selectively our government enforces the laws. It will cost you thousands of dollars in legal fees while the government at taxpayer’s expense goes after you for time and a half, double time, meal and breaktime etc.

    Your housekeeper will be coached and counseled by the government not to settle with you and she will be promised a big payday.

    You will pay everything that she claims because the burden of proof is on the employer in the absence of times cards etc. Plus you will pay a $10,000.00 first time offenders penalty.

    AND THEN YOU WILL READ COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG ADMONISHING YOU FOR NOT RUNNING YOUR HOUSE K’HALACHA!!!!!

    tsvika55
    tsvika55
    15 years ago

    Dear Dina,

    1) Why do you accuse Rubashkins of hiring iligaly? Have you seen any proof of the workers being paid off the books? Not paing taxes, etc?

    2) Do you even understand the concept of having a meth-lab in a meat-production plant such as Argi? If you would’ve been willing to give your fellow yiden even a minute amount of benefit of a doubt and actualy read the filings from ICE you would realize that most of these charges have been trumped up by the government with the help of disgruntled employee who was in the trouble with the law…

    But let’s assume you’re not a “reading type”, just emagine for one second there being a drug producing operation in a plant that has OSHA ppl around 24/7 not to mentione lots of respected mashgichim.

    Next time you decide to lecture on K’HALACHA issues, look up first some basic concepts of VE ACHAVTA L’REACHO K’MOCHO as well as DAN L’KAV ZCHUS as they pertain to the situation of Rubashkins.

    Postville resident
    Postville resident
    15 years ago

    Dina:

    Here we go again! Another armchair analyst preaching to anyone who will listen but has absolutely no clue about anything gong on in Agri.

    Dina:

    Have you ever come within 100 miles of Iowa?

    Have you ever visited the plant?

    Have you even the slightest knowledge of how to run a large company?

    Yet you do not hesitate to pontificate to us in the trenches on how to conduct business.

    Please, Learn and experience before preaching to us.

    Matzahlocal101
    Matzahlocal101
    15 years ago

    Dina,

    Some others have already pointed out that you have excrement for brains, but that not withstanding, The federal gov’t seems to be chasing numbers. It is much much easier to find and round up 300 people that punch time cards and work 9-5 everyday than to find 10 drug dealers or violent gang members. While I will not attempt to justify illegal aliens breaking the law, or the POSSIBILITY of Rubashkin knowing that they did not have proper documentation, the weapons charges and drug production allegations that you are mentioning are absurd. I’m sure every drug dealer in Iowa would rather set up a drug lab in the middle of a plant having 1000 employees and numerous Govt offices on site, than say in the middle of a farm 12 miles away from the nearest neighbor. Considering the state has an average population density of less than 53 people per square mile, compared to 1174 per square mile in New Jersey, there are better places in Iowa to set up a drug lab. Additionally, the Feds (ICE) in Iowa seem to have too much free time on their hands. In Dec 2006 they raided Swift Beef and Pork in Marshalltown and rounded up almost 1300 illegals. The state authorities in Iowa would be better off kicking out ICE or sending them to California where they to arrest people that carry MAC-10 submachine guns and are a serious threat to the community as opposed to the guys in Iowa who are just trying to support their families.