Collateral Damage: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Raids

By Travis Packer, Immigration Impact
Alternet
February 23, 2010

The collateral damage left in the wake of internal immigration enforcement is far too often overlooked in the immigration debate—especially considering that children bear the brunt of such enforcement policies. There are roughly 5.5 million children currently living in the U.S. with at least one unauthorized parent, and at least three-quarters of these children are U.S. born citizens. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that over the last 10 years, more than 100,000 immigrant parents of U.S. citizen children have been deported from the United States. As DHS continues to increases its enforcement-heavy budget, it’s important to consider the serous risks raids and other ICE actions that separate parents and children pose to children’s immediate safety, economic security, well-being, and long-term development.

A new report by the Urban Institute, Facing Our Future: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement, summarized here, examines the consequences of parental arrest, detention, and deportation on 190 children in 85 families in Grand Island NE, New Bedford, MA, Van Nuys, CA, Postville IA, Miami, FL, and Rogers-Springdale, AK. At least 20 families in the study were forced to decide whether children—many of whom are native born U.S. citizens—would leave the country with their deported parent or remain with the other parent or U.S. relatives.

The report found that:

* When a working parent’s income was lost because they were detained and/or deported, many families experienced housing instability and food insufficiency because of the lost income.

* Most parents observed significant, adverse changes in their child’s behavior. In the six months following a raid or arrest, approximately two-thirds of children experienced changes in eating and sleeping habits. More than half cried or were afraid more often, and more than a third were more anxious, withdrawn, clingy, angry, or aggressive. The majority of children in the study experienced at least four of these behavior changes.

* While community-based organizations, churches, non-profit service providers, lawyers, public human services agencies, and child welfare agencies provided aid to families affected by raids or other arrests, the aid was short term and not a viable long term solution.

These children live in a constant fear of separation, exhibit considerable behavioral changes and often lack the financial support necessary to meet their basic needs. One mother related her sons’ fears:

They’re afraid of going outside and even going to school. They missed a week. ‘We don’t want to go, mom. [What if] they take us from the bus?’…‘No,’ I tell them, ‘they won’t do anything to you.’ It’s very difficult…I’ve sent them to study. Their teacher [sent for them] on Tuesday and they’re studying [at school].

So what can we do to ensure that children are protected from the damaging effects of immigration raids? The Urban Institute made a number of policy recommendations, which include:

* Congress should modify current immigration law so the interests of children, especially U.S. citizen children, are protected during deportation proceedings.

* ICE should continue its informal moratorium on worksite raids.

* ICE should continue to develop alternatives to detention so that parents who do not present a danger to the community or a flight risk are not detained.

* DHS and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) should work together to develop strategies to support state and local governments and non-profit organizations to ensure the well-being of children when their parents are deported.

These solutions, while helpful in the short term, are not viable in the long term. Without comprehensive immigration reform—reform that provides a path to legalization for unauthorized parents of U.S. born children, mixed-status families will continue bear the brunt of bad immigration enforcement policy.

http://www.alternet.org/story/145776/

Juveniles who worked at chicken plant are home after immigration raid

Juveniles who worked at chicken plant are home after immigration raid
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE EXCHANGE
Published: October 10, 2008

Four juveniles detained in Tuesday's immigration raid at a Greenville, S.C., poultry plant have returned to their families in Mexico and Guatemala, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Two others have been released to legal caregivers and are expected to appear later before an immigration judge, who will decide whether to deport them.

Their employment at the House of Raeford Farms plant appears to violate S.C. labor law, which prohibits people younger than 18 from working in hazardous jobs such as poultry processing.

In all, federal authorities arrested 331 workers at the plant, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement. About a quarter have been released for humanitarian reasons, such as illness or caring for children. They're under orders to appear later before judges.

The rest have been interviewed and transferred to detention facilities in Georgia, where they await deportation. They'll have the option of appearing before immigration judges or simply agreeing that they broke the law. Those who do the latter could be returned to their home countries within a month or two.

Federal authorities say they're continuing their investigation into House of Raeford's hiring practices, with a focus on determining who allowed illegal immigrants to work at the plant.

"We've gathered evidence," said ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez. "We'll be sorting through the evidence. And we'll be going where the evidence takes us."

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/oct/10/juveniles-who-worked-chicken-plant-are-home-after-/#

Deportations affecting child-labor proceedings

September 18, 2008
Deportations affecting child-labor proceedings
By TONY LEYS
tleys@dmreg.com

Waukon, Ia. - The state's child-labor case against leaders of Agriprocessors could be complicated by the fact that some of the alleged victims have been deported before they could testify or be cross-examined, a defense lawyer said here Wednesday.

"We have some serious concerns that some of these folks aren't even in the country anymore," lawyer F. Montgomery Brown told a magistrate.

Some of the purported underage workers were swept up in an immigration raid at the Postville meatpacking plant in May.

Brown represents Sholom Rubashkin, who ran Agriprocessors for years. He is one of five people charged last week with thousands of misdemeanor charges of employing minors in the plant. The others are his father, Aaron Rubashkin, who owns the plant, and human resources managers Elizabeth Billmeyer, Laura Althouse and Karina Freund.

All entered written not-guilty pleas. None appeared at the initial hearing Wednesday at the Allamakee County Courthouse.

Deputy Attorney General Thomas H. Miller promised to provide the names of the alleged victims to the defense lawyers as soon as possible.

He said after the hearing that his office shares the defense's concern about lawyers' access to the alleged victims. He said a few were deported shortly after the raid.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080918/NEWS/809180377/1001/NEWS

Obama comments shocking, says Postville plant

August 27, 2008
Obama comments shocking, says Postville plant
By TONY LEYS
tleys@dmreg.com

Agriprocessors fired back Tuesday at presidential candidate Barack Obama for suggesting the meatpacking plant face punishment over allegations that it knowingly hired underage workers and illegal immigrants.

A lawyer for the embattled Postville company said Obama's comments at a Davenport campaign rally Monday were unfair to the company. "Before he made public accusations accusing a meatpacking plant of hiring 13- and 14-year-olds 'only ... to avoid paying people decent wages and providing them decent benefits' and declared that the minors were assigned to work with 'buzz saws and cleavers,' did Senator Obama look at the evidence or consider the plant's categorical denial of these allegations?" said the lawyer, Nathan Lewin of Washington, D.C.

Lewin chided Obama for declaring the plant in the wrong before investigations are complete. "This is a shocking statement from a former president of the Harvard Law Review and former constitutional law professor who has sworn, as a United States senator, to uphold the Constitution, which prescribes a presumption of innocence until guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt."Obama didn't name Agriprocessors at the Davenport event, but he alluded to the company in response to a woman who mentioned Postville in a question about immigration.

"We've got to crack down on employers who are taking advantage of undocumented workers," he said. "When you read about a meatpacking plant hiring 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds - that is some of the most dangerous, difficult work there is. ... They have kids in there wielding buzz saws and cleavers? It's ridiculous. And the only reason they're hiring these folks is because they want to avoid paying decent wages and providing decent benefits."Obama also mentioned that he'd learned of some of the details from the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has sharply criticized Agriprocessors and tried to organize its workers.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080827/NEWS/808270378/-1/ENT05

Guest column: Governor — Agriprocessors must operate responsibly

Guest column: Governor — Agriprocessors must operate responsibly
CHET CULVER is governor of Iowa.
August 24, 2008
The Des Moines Register

As governor, I have worked to attract and to grow businesses large and small throughout Iowa. By taking what might be called the "high road" to economic development, we are showing that investment in Iowa's work force is a good value to Iowa taxpayers, and we are creating good-paying jobs as a result.

So, I'm proud to say Iowa's business climate is strong, and it's getting stronger. Make no mistake, as long as I have the honor of serving as governor, I will continue to work every day to bring good jobs to Iowa.

Lt. Gov. Patty Judge and I are committed to supporting businesses that play by the rules. They are an essential part of our future economic growth. Which is why I am very concerned about the events at the Postville Agriprocessors facility, before and after the May 12 federal raid.

The sad events surrounding the federal Postville raid, resulting in multiple federal criminal-law convictions of line workers and low-level supervisors - and, notably, not yet of the company's owners - are strong evidence of a company that has chosen to take advantage of a failed federal immigration system.

In doing so, this company has fallen far short of meeting the high business standards that Iowans expect. Our laws reflect these standards. They protect consumers, Iowa workers and the state's environment.

Before the federal raid, Agriprocessors already had a history of sanctions by Iowa's state regulatory agencies for water pollution, as well as health and safety law violations. Alarming information about working conditions at the Postville plant - including allegations ranging from the use of child labor in prohibited jobs to sexual and physical abuse by supervisors; from the nonpayment of regular and overtime wages to the denial of immediate medical attention for workplace injuries - brought to national attention by the raid forces me to believe that, in contrast to our state's overall economic-development strategy, this company's owners have deliberately chosen to take the low road in its business practices.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080824/OPINION01/808240322/-1/NEWS04

US factory raid splits small town

US factory raid splits small town
A tour of Postville
Thursday, 7 August 2008 15:16 UK

A raid that caught nearly 400 illegal immigrants working in an Iowa meat packing plant has put a small town at the centre of one of America's most divisive issues, as the BBC's Dumeetha Luthra discovered.

As you enter Postville, Iowa, it could be a poster ad for many small towns across mid-America with its clipped lawns, US flags, and kids cycling down the street.
A roadside sign proudly welcomes you to the "Hometown to the World".

But on 12 May those words were turned on their head when 389 illegal immigrants were arrested while working at Agriprocessors, a kosher meat packing plant.

It was the biggest such raid the US had ever conducted, and it thrust Postville centre-stage to become a microcosm of the illegal immigration debate. Almost three months on, the small town is in turmoil.

"It's worse now than when the raids took place," said Father Ouderkirk, who came out of retirement as parish priest to help in the aftermath.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7545663.stm

Inquiry Finds Under-Age Workers at Meat Plant

August 6, 2008
Inquiry Finds Under-Age Workers at Meat Plant
By JULIA PRESTON

State labor investigators have identified 57 under-age workers who were employed at a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, and have asked the attorney general to bring criminal charges against the company for child labor violations, Dave Neil, the Iowa Labor Commissioner, said on Tuesday.

“The investigation brings to light egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa’s child labor laws,” Mr. Neil said in a statement announcing the results of a seven-month investigation at Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meat plant.

In a raid in May, 389 illegal immigrant workers were detained there in the largest immigration enforcement operation ever at a single workplace.

Mr. Neil said that investigators had found multiple child labor law violations for each under-age worker at the plant. They included employing minors in prohibited occupations, exposing them to hazardous chemicals, and making them work with prohibited tools like knives and saws, he said.

In a statement, Agriprocessors said it was “at a loss to understand” the investigation results. The company said it had cooperated with the inquiry, providing documents and opening the plant to inspectors. Last year, Agriprocessors fired four workers who were under age but had provided false documents as evidence they were old enough to work, the statement said.

Kerry Koonce, a spokeswoman for Iowa Workforce Development, the state labor department, said the number of under-age workers was by far the largest in an Iowa child labor case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/us/06meat.html?th&emc=th

After Iowa Raid, Immigrants Fuel Labor Inquiries

By JULIA PRESTON
The New York Times
July 27, 2008

POSTVILLE, Iowa . When federal immigration agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant here in May and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants, they found more than 20 under-age workers, some as young as 13.

Now those young immigrants have begun to tell investigators about their jobs. Some said they worked shifts of 12 hours or more, wielding razor-edged knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some worked through the night, sometimes six nights a week.

One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L. who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant's killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts, six days a week. In an affidavit, he said he was constantly tired and did not have time to do anything but work and sleep. "I was very sad," he
said, "and I felt like I was a slave."

At first, labor officials said the raid had disrupted federal and state investigations already under way at Agriprocessors Inc., the nation's largest kosher plant. The raid has drawn criticism for what some see as harsh tactics against the immigrants, with little action taken against their employers.

But in the aftermath of the arrests, labor investigators have reaped a bounty of new evidence from the testimony of illegal immigrants, teenagers and adults, who were caught in the raid. In formal declarations, immigrants have described pervasive labor violations at the plant, testimony that could result in criminal charges for Agriprocessors executives, labor law experts said.

Out of work and facing deportation proceedings, many of the immigrants say they now have nothing to lose in speaking up about the conditions in the plant. They have told investigators that they were routinely put to work without safety training and were forced to work long shifts without overtime or rest time. Under-age workers said their bosses knew how young they were.

Because of the dangers of the work, it is illegal in Iowa for a company to employ anyone under 18 on the floor of a meatpacking plant.

In a statement, Agriprocessors said it did not employ workers under 18, and would fire any under-age worker found to have presented false documents to obtain work.

To investigate the child labor accusations, the federal Labor Department has joined with the Iowa Division of Labor Services in cooperation with the state attorney general's office, officials for the three agencies said.

Sonia Parras Konrad, an immigration lawyer in private practice in Des Moines, is representing many of the young workers. She said she had so far identified 27 workers under 18 who were employed in the packing areas of the plant, most of them illegal immigrants from Guatemala, including some who were not arrested in the raid.

"Some of these boys don't even shave," Ms. Parras Konrad said. "They're goofy. They're teenagers."

At a meeting here Saturday, three members of the House Hispanic Caucus . including its chairman, Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois . heard seven immigrant minors describe working in the Agriprocessors plant.

Iowa labor officials said they rarely encounter child labor cases even though the state has many meatpacking plants.

"We don't normally have many under-age folks working in our state," said Gail Sheridan-Lucht, a lawyer for the state labor department, who said she could not comment specifically on the Agriprocessors investigation.

Other investigations are also under way. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is examining accusations of sexual harassment of women at the plant. Lawyers for the immigrants are preparing a suit under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for wage and hour violations.

Federal justice and immigration officials, speaking on Thursday at a hearing in Washington of the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee, said their investigations were continuing. A federal grand jury in Cedar Rapids is hearing evidence.

While federal prosecutors are primarily focusing on immigration charges, they may also be looking into labor violations. Search warrant documents filed in court before the raid, which was May 12, cited a report by an anonymous immigrant who was sent to work in the plant by immigration authorities as an undercover informant. The immigrant saw "a rabbi who was calling employees derogatory names and throwing meat at employees." Jewish managers oversee the slaughtering and processing of meat at Agriprocessors to ensure kosher standards.

In another episode, the informant said a floor supervisor had blindfolded an immigrant with duct tape. "The floor supervisor then took one of the meat hooks and hit the Guatemalan with it," the informant said, adding that the blow did not cause "serious injuries."

So far, 297 illegal immigrants from the May raid have been convicted of document fraud and other criminal charges, and most were sentenced to five months in prison, after which they will be deported.

A spokesman for Agriprocessors, Menachem Lubinsky, said the company could not comment on an active investigation.

"The company has two objectives in mind: to restore its production to meet the demands of the kosher food market and to be in full compliance with all local, state and federal laws," Mr. Lubinsky said. Reports of labor violations at the plant "remain allegations only, that no agency has charged the company with," he said.

The Agriprocessors kosher plant here has been owned and operated since 1987 by Aaron Rubashkin and his family. His son Sholom was the plant's top manager until he was removed
by his father in May after the raid. The plant's products are distributed across the country under brands including Aaron's Best and Aaron's Choice.

Most of the young immigrants were hired at Agriprocessors after they presented false Social Security cards or other documents saying they were older than they were.

But in an interview her, Elmer L. said he had told floor supervisors that he was under 18. He asked that his last name not be published on advice of his lawyer, Ms. Parras Konrad, because he is a minor in deportation proceedings.

"They asked me how old I was," Elmer L. said. "They could see that sometimes I could not keep up with the work."

Elmer L. said that he regularly worked 17 hours a day at the plant and was paid $7.25 an hour. He said he was not paid overtime consistently.

"My work was very hard, because they didn't give me my breaks, and I wasn't getting very much sleep," he said. "They told us they were going to call immigration if we complained."

Elmer L. said that he was clearing cow innards from the slaughter floor last Aug. 26 when a supervisor he described as a rabbi began yelling at him, then kicked him from behind. The blow caused a freshly-sharpened knife to fly up and cut his elbow.

He was sent to a hospital where doctors closed the laceration with eight stitches. But he said that when he returned, his elbow still stinging, to ask for some time off, his supervisor ordered him back to work.

The next day, as he was lifting a cow's tongue, the stitches ruptured, Elmer L. said, and the wound bled again. He said he was given a bandage at the plant and sent back to work. The incident is confirmed in a worker's injury report filed on Aug. 31, 2007, by Agriprocessors with the Iowa labor department.

Gilda O., a Guatemalan who said she was 16, said she worked the night shift plucking chickens. She said she was working to help her parents pay off debts.

Another Guatemalan, Joel R., who gave his age as 15, said he dropped out of school in Postville after the eighth grade and took a job at Agriprocessors because his mother became ill. He said he worked from 5.30 p.m. to 6.30 a.m. in a section called "quality control," a job he described as relatively easy that he got because he speaks English.

But he said he and other workers were under constant pressure from supervisors. "They yell at us when we don't hurry up, when we don't work fast enough for them," said Joel R. He and Gilda O. did not want their last names published because they are illegal immigrants and they were
not arrested in the raid.

Most of the young immigrants have been released from detention but remain in deportation proceedings. Ms. Parras Konrad said she will ask immigration authorities to grant them special four-year temporary visas, known as U visas, which are offered to immigrants who assist in law
enforcement investigations. Iowa labor officials are considering supporting some of those requests, Ms. Sheridan-Lucht said.

Agriprocessors executives said they had begun an overhaul of hiring and labor practices, starting with hiring a compliance officer, James G. Martin, a former United States attorney in Missouri. In an interview, Mr. Martin said the company had contracted with an outside firm, the Jacobson
Staffing Company, to handle its hiring, and new safety officers, including one former federal work safety inspector.

Mark Lauritsen, a vice president for the International Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has tried to organize the plant, said he remained skeptical. "They are the poster
child for how a rogue company can exploit a broken immigration system," Mr. Lauritsen said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/us/27immig.html