IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

Lynda Waddington posted an interesting story at Iowa Independent about
a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling announced yesterday. The
decision may become an issue at confirmation hearings if President
Barack Obama takes Senator Tom Harkin's advice and nominates Stephanie
Rose for U.S. attorney in Iowa's Northern District. ... My immediate
question was how this ruling might affect Stephanie Rose, whom Harkin
has recommended for U.S. attorney in Iowa's Northern District. The
president has not yet nominated a candidate for this position. Some
critics say Rose is not fit for the job because of her role in
prosecuting those detained during the Postville raid.

Labels: immigration, Tom_Harkin

'This is akin to foxes guarding the chicken coop' ... Long before
Postville made national headlines as the site of a massive immigration
raid at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant last May, author Stephen
Bloom had spent years in the community and detailed his observations
in a critically acclaimed book, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in
Heartland America," published in 2000. With Agriprocessors now in
bankruptcy and eight former employees, including former CEO Sholom
Rubashkin, facing criminal charges, Bloom is uniquely qualified to
provide the historical context of what happened in Postville. In a
telephone interview with Iowa Independent, he spoke about how the
social and economic tensions he observed in Postville culminated in a
debacle that has disrupted the life of the town and exposed the
shortcomings of state regulations and national immigration laws.

Labels: immigration

Postville Churches Ask For Government Bailout To Support Illegal
Aliens -- Churches Struggling To Sustain From Their Own Funds The
Humanitarian Crisis They Created In Postville For Supporting Illegal
Aliens… Representatives of 20 churches in Postville and Decorah are
asking Gov. Chet Culver, U.S. Sens. Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley,
Congressmen Tom Latham and Bruce Braley, State Senator-Elect Mary Jo
Wilhelm and state Representative-Elect John Beard to immediately come
to the Postville area in a coordinated visit. In a letter, the
churches say the six-month humanitarian response to needs created by
the May 12th raid on the Agriprocessors Inc. kosher meatpacking plant
has been stretched beyond its sustainable capacity.

Labels: immigration

State Senator previously received funds from Agriprocessors CEO ... If
immigration issues were a political football in this year's state
legislative races, then Senate District 8, an area that encompasses
Howard, Chickasaw, Allamakee and Winneshiek counties in northeastern
Iowa and includes the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant, was the
50-yard line. It was in that race that Iowa Senate Minority Whip Mark
Zieman lost his re-election bid to Mary Jo Wilhelm, a relatively
unknown Democratic upstart. The defeat came amid whispers and campaign
mailers about the immigration concerns surrounding Agriprocessors in
Postville, Zieman's hometown.

Labels: elections, immigration

When federal agents raided the Agriprocessors plant in Postville last
spring, they tied up a knot of legal issues that still hasn't been
undone. The most obvious issue is immigration law, since all of the
300-plus workers arrested at the plant were from other countries, many
of them in the United States without proper documentation. But the
issues at work go well beyond immigration law and include elements of
labor law, workplace safety, child labor law and criminal trial
procedure. The University of Iowa College of Law will examine those
and other Postville-related legal issues when it hosts a professional
development program on Friday, Nov. 14. The program, "Postville
Unpacked," runs from 1 to 5:15 p.m. in Boyd Law Building.

Labels: immigration

Charges of state child labor law violations at Agriprocessors have
prompted a member of Iowa's congressional delegation to propose new
federal legislation that would increase penalties against offending
companies. "Yesterday's charges against Agriprocessors emphasize the
need to protect children against unsafe and illegal working
conditions," said U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley. "When employers purposefully
break the law by hiring children for dangerous jobs, they put our
children's lives and safety at risk. The current, low federal
penalties must be increased to deter future child labor violations."
Tuesday morning Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller filed documents in
Allamakee County against Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking plant in
Postville, charging the company and five individuals with more than
9,000 violations of state child labor laws.

Labels: Bruce Braley, immigration

Postville, IA. A small town in Iowa now well known- not for flood or
tornado damage but, according to the May 12, 2008 Des Moines Register,
as the site of "the largest work place raid in Iowa history. "(Now the
"largest workplace immigration raid in U.S. history." DM Sunday
Register, July 27, 2008). Postville with a population estimated to be
2,000 in July of 2006. The home of Agriprocessors Inc. Much
information has been in the news about the raid, strong feelings for
and against what U. S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement did on
that May 12 day and what has happened in the ten weeks following the
raid. Reading accounts in the newspapers and hearing reports on the
radio leaves me with a wide variety of thoughts and emotions.

Labels: immigration

U.S. Rep. Tom Latham is hopeful that an upcoming trip by the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus into Postville will allow more people to
witness the aftermath of the May 12 immigration raid in the community,
and allow policy makers to have a better understanding of the human
and economic tolls of such a federal action. "The members of the
Hispanic Caucus will have seen firsthand, number one, the effect of
the meatpacking plant owners and, what appears to be, them knowingly
having illegal people working there," Latham said in an interview with
Iowa Independent. "They will see the impact and the consequences of
that."

Labels: immigration, Tom Latham

In a segment the network dubbed "Postville Blues," CBS Evening News
(anchored by Forrest Saywer) highlighted the plight of some of some of
the immigrants that remain in the community while wearing immigration
tracking devices. ... The reporting does adequately describe the current
circumstance surrounding the immigrant women and their children as
well as the local churches -- especially St. Bridget's Catholic
Church. Maria Lopez, one of the women wearing the ankle tracking
devices, speaks through a translator to describe how plant workers
were given new documentation for price. It was an arrangement that she
says plant management was aware of and encouraged.

Labels: immigration

Two supervisors charged with encouraging workers to obtain and use
fraudulent documents in order to continue employment at Agriprocessors
in Postville pleaded "not guilty" in federal court. Martin De La
Rosa-Loera, 43, and Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, are both are
charged with aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent
identity documents and encouraging aliens to illegally reside in the
U.S. Although court proceedings were scheduled to begin Thursday
morning at 9 a.m. in the temporary court facilities in Cedar Rapids, a
transportation snafu delayed the start of the hearings until later
that same day. The men, who are being prosecuted individually, have
obtained representation.

Labels: immigration

A Third Supervisor at Postville Plant Remains At Large... While two
supervisors from Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking plant in
Postville, were arrested this week in connection with a May 12
immigration raid at the plant and appeared in federal court, a third
remains on the run. As originally reported by Iowa Independent, Hosam
Amara is believed to have fled the jurisdiction. Amara, according to
former plant workers, was the master-mind behind a car sales scheme
that encouraged undocumented workers to purchase used cars and
fraudulently register them. Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, and
Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43, have become the first two members of the
company's management team to face charges since the May raid.

Labels: immigration

Braley Demands Tougher Oversight of Agriprocessors, Latham Urges Immigration Reform... Iowa -- in particular the small town of Postville -- is currently at the core of a long-waged public debate on immigration. The federal operation there on May 12, the aftermath of deportations and criminal sentencing, as well as the current silence in relation to the investigation against the employer encompass the multitude of issues surrounding immigration and emotions provoked by such government action. As local residents attempt to work through their own often conflicting viewpoints on both responsibility and reform, they need look no further than two of their own congressmen to see how differently two men can react and respond to the same situation.

Labels: Bruce Braley, immigration, Tom Latham

Several frightened Hispanic families, some crying with kids clearly in
the background, made frantic telephone calls to a western Iowa
Spanish-language paper over the last two days seeking information on
what they falsely believed to be the start of a Postville-style raid
in Denison, a community with a burgeoning Hispanic population and
heavy packing-house presence. La Prensa received the first call early
Wednesday from a Spanish-speaking employee of a packing house in
Denison who said he saw other workers being carted off in handcuffs.
That event apparently sparked a rumor and something of a phone tree in
the Hispanic community there.

Labels: immigration

An Ames-based immigration attorney told a crowd of nearly 100
Hispanics at the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Denison that she
expects more immigration raids to follow the historic one earlier this
month in Postville -- and perhaps soon. "It's difficult to predict the
future but it's going to be a long summer," said JoAnn Barten.
Speaking at a forum sponsored by La Prensa, a western Iowa
Spanish-language newspaper, Barten noted that both Democratic
presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama, Ill., and Hillary
Clinton, N.Y., are likely to place moratoriums on the sort of raids
that traumatized the Latin community in Postville, where Barten
visited to assist those affected in days after the sweep. "For this
reason, expect more raids," Barten said.

Labels: immigration

Social Security Administration Compliance Letters Ceased After 2006...
The politically-connected meatpacking company where almost 400
undocumented workers were arrested earlier this month ignored repeated
government warnings about the use of false identification papers
amongst its employees, according to a federal immigration
investigator. Immigration agent David Hoagland reported in a sworn
affidavit filed before the May 12 raid in Postville that
Agriprocessors, Inc., the kosher food supplier owned by FNTK
Ryboshkim, received a dozen letters from the Social Security
Administration in 2005 and 2006. The letters stated that up to 78
percent of the businesses' workforce provided Social Security
information that did not match with government records.

Labels: immigration

Much has been written, both before after after the May 12 immigration
raids in Postville, on the diversity of the community. One unique and
divisive aspect of Postville that has largely escaped most members of
the media, however, is the fact that the community is split between
Allamakee and Clayton counties. This also means that the community is
divided between Iowa's 1st and 4th Congressional Districts. The
Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant resides in Allamakee County
and Iowa's 4th District. While it goes without saying that residents
of both districts have felt and will continue to feel an impact of the
nation's largest immigration raids that netted 389 people, most of
them from either Guatemala or Mexico, only Congressman Bruce Braley, a
Democrat representing the 1st District, has voiced questions and
concerns about the activities on that day and the subsequent
aftermath.

Labels: Bruce Braley, immigration, Tom Latham

The sprawling Agriprocessors packing plant on the outskirts of town is
imposing and intimidating even if you don't know about the
jaw-dropping lawlessness our government says went on inside these
fences. Knowing sends a chill up your back. So it's probably lucky you
can't stay long. Tuesday, a stern, but polite, woman told Gazette
video journalist Mike Barnes and myself to leave, pronto. Fair enough.
Nothing to see. No one's talking. But there was plenty to see
elsewhere. There was St. Bridget's Catholic parish near downtown,
where dozens of plant workers and their families milled around inside
the church and outside in the courtyard. Many here have family members
among the 390 plant workers detained by federal immigration officials
at Monday's historic raid.

Labels: immigration

As the story of Postville continues to unfold several obvious truths
are now becoming undeniable. Most importantly, illegal immigration is
a social occurrence that directly and immediately affects the state of
Iowa. Last year Marshalltown, this year Postville and who knows what
else. Illegal immigration is bad for the communities where it is
prevalent. At least one third of little Postville's population (less
than 2300) appears to be there illegally. Think of the burdens imposed
on that school district and the taxpayers who fund it. While such
immigration certainly creates new economic opportunities it depresses
far more. The Marshalltown experience proves that reliance on illegals
depresses wages.

Labels: immigration, Iowa GOP

The news up here in N.E. Iowa, and actually around all of Iowa the
last several days has been the I.C.E. raid at the Agriprocessors plant
in Postville, Ia. State 29 has been keeping an eye on the whole thing.
He's got excerpts from the Cedar Rapids Gazette from the warrent, and
from what I've read, it looks like that company took FULL advantage of
the illegal workers. See, it's not simply that they are doing jobs
that Americans won't do. It's that they are being treated in a way
that you couldn't treat a legal citizen, because, you know, it's
criminal. They can pay you a low wage under the table, jack up your
rent anytime they want, and force you to buy used cars from them.

Labels: immigration

There is an immigration raid occurring at the Agriprocessors Inc.
complex in Postville, Iowa (i.e. the kosher meat packing plant). There
has been speculation for weeks that an immigration raid was in the
works somewhere in Eastern Iowa due to the fact that the feds had
leased the entire Waterloo Cattle Congress grounds for several weeks
and were not answering any question as to the reason for the lease.
Reports state that at least 700 arrests are likely. Government
officials are also saying that they are trying to take care of any
health and child care issues the arrestees might have (likely to avoid
the publicity nightmare they faced after the Marshalltown raid). But
I'm wondering how many illegals will cop to having kids when they're
being asked about it by federal agents.

Labels: immigration

Last Tuesday the DM Register headlined the McKinley Task Force
recommended changes to Iowa's immigration laws. Don over at Cyclone
Conservative gave the details of the proposal a thorough review last
Tuesday and we here at TRS urge everyone to watch the video. The
Senate Republicans produced the nearly perfect Republican immigration
position. Long ago TRS called for a Republican immigration plan that
enforced existing laws while helping streamline the legal entry
process, particularly for shrinking states like Iowa. Now we have it.
The only downside is creating fourteen new trooper positions to
expedite enforcement.

Labels: immigration

The Cooler has obtained the above photos of the Mexican consulate in Little Rock, Arkansas. For those that don't know, Governor Huckabee lobbied aggressively for the addition of a Mexican consulate in Little Rock, at the taxpayers expense of course. This consulate served as a resource for illegal immigrants living in Arkansas, and some Huckabee opponents claim it drew additional illegal immigrants to the state. The Mexican consulate helps Mexicans, legal or illegals, with papers, and hands out a consular identification - which critics argue gives illegals a valid ID which helps them meld into society. All of the costs associated with this come out of taxpayers' pockets.

Labels: immigration, Mike_Huckabee

A few days ago, Iowa Democratic leaders held a press conference in Des
Moines at the Capitol talking about the need to get tough on illegal
immigration. Don't believe a word they are saying. Democrats in Iowa
had a chance to vote on tough anti-illegal immigration legislation
during the 2006 session and many of them voted against it. Without
Republican leadership the bill wouldn't have passed. What was the
bill? House File 2671. It was considered by the House on 3/16/2006.
What happened to it in the Senate? All I can seem to find is that it
was referred to a committee. Fascinating.

Labels: immigration, state House, state Senate

One year ago, the Swift plant in Marshalltown was raided by
immigration agents. The events that day and those that followed have
sent shock waves throughout Marshalltown, the state, and the country.
The most heart wrenching story that I have heard is of the young baby,
who was still nursing, that was left in the care of a local church
after the mother was detained. Unfortunately, the debate on
immigration has become an even hotter and more divisive issue, and the
chances for a common sense solution that gets to the heart of the
issue becomes less likely.

Labels: immigration

While I realize I have inundated the readers of this blog with an
influx of immigration posts lately, I find the issue to not only be
important for our country but also a vital cog in the victorious
Republican message for 2008. That being said, I received a press
release today outlining Fred's recently released ideas on immigration.
I'll give him credit for laying out a fairly expansive set of goals,
ideas and policies, but I am quite disappointed to see that none of
the bullets included any talk of a physical barrier along the southern
border. I was a believer in the border fence ever since Congressman
Steve King showed me his wall when I interned in his office about a
year and a half ago.

Labels: Fred Thompson, immigration

Tuesday Morning Update: Check out this article from today's Washington
Post. As Republicans, let's welcome this immigration debate with open
arms. As we learn more about the upcoming farm bill that is currently
being put together in Congress, we are learning that there is one very
controversial aspect that could re-inject the immigration issue back
into a prominent position in the political sphere of public discourse.
According to a Des Moines Register article: 'Legislation that would
grant legal immigration status to thousands of migrant farmworkers
will likely be added to the Senate's farm bill, said Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid...' Will an issue like this be enough to hold up this
bill?

Labels: agriculture, immigration

Never let it be said that immigration enforcement is anything but
alive and well in the Southern District of Iowa. Our US Attorney, Matt
Whitaker followed last December's successful raids at six Swift
Packing facilities in Iowa with indictments of several additional
persons involved in the demand end of the illegal immigrant market.
Large scale use of illegal immigrant labor is not possible without
collusion between management and organized labor. Today's actions,
which involve the indictment of both a Swift human resources manager
and a local Marshalltown labor leader, demonstrate Matt Whitaker's
willingness to expose and disrupt that collusion. Moreover, the
additional indictments show Matt's commitment to fighting the demand
for illegal labor and not just the supply.

Labels: immigration

In anticipation of releasing a public policy position. Needless to say, every one of us in Republican leadership here in Iowa is very aware of the firestorm that has exploded in the wake of the immigration semi-agreement. I won't speak for anyone else, or disclose anyone's position; suffice it to say that we have heard the public complaints, complaints that are shared by many of us. The level of complaint gives this issue the ability to divide our party. While our state leadership can't do much about the larger conflict, we can preserve and protect our state party's unity. One thing we can do is make the positions held by the Iowa Congressional delegation clear to our voters. It is my understanding that Senator Grassley, Congressman Latham and, of course, Congressman King are all opposed to the immigration compromise in anything like its current form. I'm sure they will let me know if I have inadvertently misrepresented their position. Not surprisingly I am involved in these discussions. This is one issue where I will probably "vote my conscience" but I do want to hear from you, our Republican voters, particularly our local leaders, like county officers, Federation leadership and elected officials. So, tune in, turn on and speak your mind.

Labels: immigration

Tom Tancredo look-alike, Iowa Congressman Steve King, (King admits even he can't always tell the two apart on tv) isn't so high on the Prez' new idea to let illegal immigrants pay to stay in the U.S. The Prez says his idea isn't amnesty since he'd make undocumented workers pay for a temporary visa to stay and work here. King told me the Prez' definition of "amnesty" is apparently different from the rest of Americans. King thinks the idea just rewards people for breaking the law. King wants illegals deported.

Labels: immigration, Steve King

Tom Tancredo's visit to Iowa over the weekend has awakened me to the fact that Americans need to face some history. Between comments to articles and some stuff in the blogosphere, American defense of "our culture" takes some disturbing tones. ... The US annexed Texas and disputed territories, with full knowledge that it was still claimed by Mexico. Further, we failed to obtain the rest of the southwest by purchase. Because of these facts, we went to war. In that war, US claims to Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California were fully realized. Our war not only deprived Mexico of its rightful territory, but also led to decades of continuing slavery for blacks in those areas ... The US is the great country that it is today in spite of these facts, but these facts should humble us in considering our responsibilities to our less fortunate neighbors to the south.

Labels: immigration, Tom_Tancredo

... This session included a question and answer session with a panel that includes 2 members from the school district, a person from the Chamber of Commerce, the director of the Community College, and a Marshalltown resident who immigrated from Mexico over ten years ago. Most of the questions pertained to education because most of the panel is from the education field. Here is one of question that was asked that had a great answer from one of panelists (which recieved loud applause)... Q: Should it be a requirement to speak English when someone passes the border? A: It wasn't a requirement when my Grandfather came to this nation.

Labels: immigration