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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Former Agriprocessors Workers Face Deportation

Associated Press
December 7, 2009

About 30 immigrants arrested in the May 2008 of kosher meat plant Agriprocessors Inc. are currently facing deportation now that they’re no longer needed to testify against former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin.

Last month, federal prosecutors dropped all 72 federal immigration charges against Rubashkin, determining that the cost of a second trial wasn’t necessary since Rubashkin was convicted of 86 counts of financial fraud and is facing more than 1,200 years in prison. As a result, the Des Moines Register is reporting that the immigrants who were allowed to stay and work in the U.S. so they could testify at the second trial are no longer needed and could potentially be deported.

Advocates for the workers are complaining that their voice has been taken away and are questioning the workers’ fates.

“What is their future?” asked the Rev. Paul Ouderkirk, retired pastor of St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville, Iowa. “What will the government do with them? Will any recognition be made that they sacrificed two years of their lives?”

Among the 389 illegal immigrants arrested in last year’s raid is 40-year-old Juventino Lopez Pichia and 44-year-old Victor Hugo Sis Tepaz, both of Guatemala. Agriprocessors officials were accused of falsifying documents in order to employ illegal immigrants, and most of the arrested workers were charged with identity theft and served five months in prison, including Pichia and Tepaz. In the months after the raid, Agriprocessors filed for bankruptcy. The plant is now under new ownership and has a new name - Agri Star.

http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2009/12/07/former-agriprocessors-workers-face-deportation/?mod=rss_WSJBlog