By HILDA MUÑOZ
The Hartford Courant
October 29, 2009
Ten city residents arrested during U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the summer of 2007 are suing the agency in federal court, claiming their civil rights were violated.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in New Haven, naming the agents who conducted the raids, their supervisors and senior ICE officials as defendants.
The plaintiffs, who are fighting deportation, are being represented by lawyers and students from Yale Law School's Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization.
"For them, it's been a humiliating, fear-producing, difficult and extraordinarily painful situation," said Ana Muñoz, one of the law students working on the case.
ICE does not comment on pending litigation, agency spokeswoman Paula Grenier said.
The plaintiffs were sleeping or engaged in morning routines the morning of June 6, 2007, when ICE agents, carrying a "target list," banged on their doors. Weapons drawn, agents entered the plaintiffs' homes without cause, consent or search warrants, according to the lawsuit.
"Federal immigration authorities had not previously determined that most of those they arrested were in violation of immigration law, and the agents who stormed through Fair Haven had no reason to assume that those they arrested lacked immigration status," the lawsuit states.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said that ICE agents often are looking for a fugitive immigrant and end up finding an undocumented immigrant.
"Every illegal alien is deportable," he said. " You don't have legal right to complain that ICE found you."
The Center for Immigration Studies is a nonprofit organization devoted to research and policy analysis of the impact of immigration in the United States.
Federal agents arrested 29 illegal immigrants in the raids, two days after city officials approved a program that would grant identification cards to undocumented immigrants.
At the time, Grenier said the roundup was part of a routine fugitive operation, according to a report by the Associated Press. But city officials, including Mayor John DeStefano, said they believed the raids were conducted in retaliation for the Elm City Resident Card Program.
The lawsuit makes the same claim.
"Hartford ICE agents deliberately chose to conduct raids in New Haven in retaliation for the City's efforts to improve public safety for all its residents by integrating immigrants and Latinos into civic life," the lawsuit states.
"When federal law enforcement officials try to fulfill enforcement obligations, the Constitution still applies to them," Muñoz said.
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-icelawsuit1029.artoct29,0,313028.story
Showing posts with label Life One Year Later. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life One Year Later. Show all posts
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Op-Ed: Two Years and Four Thousand Arrests Later
by Stephen Manning, Sarah Loose, Alice Perry
CAUSA
June 12, 2009
A few hours after dawn, several white unmarked vans departed from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in downtown Portland. Workers, most of who lived in North Portland, had left their homes earlier to arrive at the Fresh Del Monte food processing factory, donning their safety clothes and gear to begin another workday cutting and packaging fruit. By 10:30am, agents had spilled from the unmarked vans and surrounded the factory. It was June 12, 2007. The most ferocious immigration raid in Oregon and, at that time, in the United States was underway. By late afternoon, 168 individuals had been arrested.
Since then, ICE has arrested some 4,345 individuals in large scale raids. As the Portland community dealt with the raid and in communities across the country reacted, we learned many things about ICE, about immigration, about ourselves and, most importantly, about our communities.
First, we learned that the whole theory behind ICE’s large scale raid tactics was illegal. ICE’s mantra was that immigrants are criminals. A few months ago, in a case called Flores-Figueroa v. United States, the Supreme Court rejected that theory in a unanimous decision.
Second, we learned that raids like Del Monte have negative impacts beyond just the individuals detained. In Portland, teachers struggled to explain to children why their classmates had suddenly disappeared, even as many children including citizen children expressed fears that they too would be taken away. Massive amounts of energy and money went into dealing with raid’s aftermath. Two years later, the emotional and financial costs to the Portland area are still undetermined. Children are still separated from their parents. Faith communities struggle to provide support to detained immigrants who are still awaiting resolution of the immigration court cases. It became clear that when the due process rights of our legal system are ignored in the context of a raid, we all suffer.
For example, in Postville, Iowa, the scene of another massive raid a year ago, the entire town is at the point of going bankrupt. There is an eerie abandoned quality to the town from the schools to the shuttered businesses. The town shrank by half. "It's like you're in an oven and there's no place to go and there's no timer to get you out," said former Postville-Mayor Robert Penrod, who, overwhelmed, resigned earlier this year.
Third, we learned that enforcement only – deportation – will solve nothing and is a waste of time and money. In Postville, the initial price tag for the raid was more than $5.2 million in government costs. In Portland, we are still assessing the financial costs of the Del Monte raid. The economic impact locally has been substantial. Nationally, the number of people detained annually is triple what it was just ten years ago, with an annual cost of $1.7 billion, yet the problems with our immigration system have not been resolved. Ultimately, deporting people does nothing to address the root cause of migration and it underscores the need for a reasonable, rationale solution.
Fourth, we learned that there is no “line” for immigrants to stand in. Saying there is a line implies everyone has a chance to get in line; this is not true for most immigrants and was not true for most if not all of the Del Monte raid victims.
Oregonians are pragmatic people. We overwhelmingly reject the notion that we should (or even that we can) deport 12 million people. Americans know that immigrants contribute to our society and we want a long-term solution.
We learned that Oregonians are also sensible about reforming the immigration system –Oregonians on all sides of the political spectrum. People prefer “a comprehensive approach that secures the border, cracks down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, and requires all illegal immigrants to register and meet certain requirements to become legal” over raids. They join Americans across the country 86% of who support comprehensive reform, with 58% strongly supporting it.
Most importantly, we learned that our community is strongest when we act together and work across divides to build relationships. Del Monte workers impacted in the raid and currently stuck in legal and financial limbo, have organized themselves and are partnering with local faith communities and organizations to educate about the need for just and humane immigration reform. Oregonians across the state have come forward to say that what happened at Del Monte was a tragedy and a waste and to assert that immigrants in Oregon are part of the fabric of our community.
http://causaoregon.blogspot.com/2009/06/op-ed-two-years-and-four-thousand.html
CAUSA
June 12, 2009
A few hours after dawn, several white unmarked vans departed from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in downtown Portland. Workers, most of who lived in North Portland, had left their homes earlier to arrive at the Fresh Del Monte food processing factory, donning their safety clothes and gear to begin another workday cutting and packaging fruit. By 10:30am, agents had spilled from the unmarked vans and surrounded the factory. It was June 12, 2007. The most ferocious immigration raid in Oregon and, at that time, in the United States was underway. By late afternoon, 168 individuals had been arrested.
Since then, ICE has arrested some 4,345 individuals in large scale raids. As the Portland community dealt with the raid and in communities across the country reacted, we learned many things about ICE, about immigration, about ourselves and, most importantly, about our communities.
First, we learned that the whole theory behind ICE’s large scale raid tactics was illegal. ICE’s mantra was that immigrants are criminals. A few months ago, in a case called Flores-Figueroa v. United States, the Supreme Court rejected that theory in a unanimous decision.
Second, we learned that raids like Del Monte have negative impacts beyond just the individuals detained. In Portland, teachers struggled to explain to children why their classmates had suddenly disappeared, even as many children including citizen children expressed fears that they too would be taken away. Massive amounts of energy and money went into dealing with raid’s aftermath. Two years later, the emotional and financial costs to the Portland area are still undetermined. Children are still separated from their parents. Faith communities struggle to provide support to detained immigrants who are still awaiting resolution of the immigration court cases. It became clear that when the due process rights of our legal system are ignored in the context of a raid, we all suffer.
For example, in Postville, Iowa, the scene of another massive raid a year ago, the entire town is at the point of going bankrupt. There is an eerie abandoned quality to the town from the schools to the shuttered businesses. The town shrank by half. "It's like you're in an oven and there's no place to go and there's no timer to get you out," said former Postville-Mayor Robert Penrod, who, overwhelmed, resigned earlier this year.
Third, we learned that enforcement only – deportation – will solve nothing and is a waste of time and money. In Postville, the initial price tag for the raid was more than $5.2 million in government costs. In Portland, we are still assessing the financial costs of the Del Monte raid. The economic impact locally has been substantial. Nationally, the number of people detained annually is triple what it was just ten years ago, with an annual cost of $1.7 billion, yet the problems with our immigration system have not been resolved. Ultimately, deporting people does nothing to address the root cause of migration and it underscores the need for a reasonable, rationale solution.
Fourth, we learned that there is no “line” for immigrants to stand in. Saying there is a line implies everyone has a chance to get in line; this is not true for most immigrants and was not true for most if not all of the Del Monte raid victims.
Oregonians are pragmatic people. We overwhelmingly reject the notion that we should (or even that we can) deport 12 million people. Americans know that immigrants contribute to our society and we want a long-term solution.
We learned that Oregonians are also sensible about reforming the immigration system –Oregonians on all sides of the political spectrum. People prefer “a comprehensive approach that secures the border, cracks down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, and requires all illegal immigrants to register and meet certain requirements to become legal” over raids. They join Americans across the country 86% of who support comprehensive reform, with 58% strongly supporting it.
Most importantly, we learned that our community is strongest when we act together and work across divides to build relationships. Del Monte workers impacted in the raid and currently stuck in legal and financial limbo, have organized themselves and are partnering with local faith communities and organizations to educate about the need for just and humane immigration reform. Oregonians across the state have come forward to say that what happened at Del Monte was a tragedy and a waste and to assert that immigrants in Oregon are part of the fabric of our community.
http://causaoregon.blogspot.com/2009/06/op-ed-two-years-and-four-thousand.html
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Women caught in Fresh Del Monte raid stuck in legal limbo
by Gosia Wozniacka
The Oregonian
June 12, 2009
A group of women caught in an immigration raid two years ago said Friday that they are still in legal limbo, unable to work or leave the country, with no financial means for their traumatized families to survive.
"We have been denied the right to work and support our families," said Elsa Martinez Torres, who was arrested in the raid and released to await her deportation hearing.
"Our children still have nightmares, and they internalize our fear and the uncertainty the future holds."
On June 12, 2007, federal agents rounded up 167 undocumented workers at Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., a large North Portland food processing plant. Martinez and the other women who spoke at Friday's news conference were among 34 workers released from custody for humanitarian reasons because they were single mothers, sole caregivers of dependent children or suffered from a chronic medical condition.
Of the workers who were jailed at the federal Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, most have been deported or voluntarily left the United States.
The women -- about 20 remain in the Portland area today -- formed a support group and meet every other Friday to share their lives and figure out how to pay for food, rent, and other necessities.
While allowed to live in the community, the women cannot work. They are also not allowed to leave the country until their case is resolved. Martinez's court date: March 2010.
The women must present themselves to authorities twice a month and are allowed to leave their houses only during certain daylight hours. Federal agents pay them a surprise visit at home once a month, adding to the feelings of anxiety.
"Somebody knocks on my door and I get scared," said Martinez, 50. "This fear is going to stay with me, I can't forget."
Martinez worked at Fresh Del Monte for three years and was about to return to Mexico when she was swept up in the raid.
She said she left her home country and her six children 16 years ago because her life was in danger. She sent money to feed and educate the children -- the youngest is now 17 -- but they had to abandon school when she was caught in the raid.
Another woman, 42-year-old Abdias Cortez, said her three U.S.-born adolescent children have had a hard time accepting that their mother might be deported. Cortez has spent 20 years illegally living in the United States, and worked at Fresh Del Monte for about two years.
"My children can't concentrate on their studies, they keep asking what's going to happen, whether we will have to separate," Cortez said.
To survive, the women have organized tamale sales, hosted salsa dancing classes and shared donations from supporters. They also have participated in human rights and leadership workshops, given presentations in schools and churches, and attended regional immigration conferences.
"Through our group, we learned to conquer our fears, our terror, and the repression we live with," Martinez said.
The support group transformed the women, said Pedro Sosa, regional organizer with the American Friends Service Committee and the group's facilitator.
"They have had the initiative to not stand by with their hands crossed," Sosa said. "They have learned their rights, they have become human-rights promoters. They have also educated others about the roots of immigration."
Another positive impact of the raid, said Portland immigration lawyer Siovhan Sheridan-Ayala, is that it brought the immigration crisis into the light and showed the inhumane side of the immigration system.
A civil lawsuit alleging dangerous conditions at Fresh Del Monte is pending, as is an ongoing criminal investigation by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
The women and their supporters called for swift immigration reform that "treats immigrants as human beings rather than an exploitable work force," said Bob Brown of the Oregon New Sanctuary Movement.
"The raids have been an erroneous answer to solving the immigration problem," Sosa said. "They only separate families and damage the future of citizen children who will have to live in a country not their own."
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/women_caught_in_fresh_del_mont.html
The Oregonian
June 12, 2009
A group of women caught in an immigration raid two years ago said Friday that they are still in legal limbo, unable to work or leave the country, with no financial means for their traumatized families to survive.
"We have been denied the right to work and support our families," said Elsa Martinez Torres, who was arrested in the raid and released to await her deportation hearing.
"Our children still have nightmares, and they internalize our fear and the uncertainty the future holds."
On June 12, 2007, federal agents rounded up 167 undocumented workers at Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., a large North Portland food processing plant. Martinez and the other women who spoke at Friday's news conference were among 34 workers released from custody for humanitarian reasons because they were single mothers, sole caregivers of dependent children or suffered from a chronic medical condition.
Of the workers who were jailed at the federal Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, most have been deported or voluntarily left the United States.
The women -- about 20 remain in the Portland area today -- formed a support group and meet every other Friday to share their lives and figure out how to pay for food, rent, and other necessities.
While allowed to live in the community, the women cannot work. They are also not allowed to leave the country until their case is resolved. Martinez's court date: March 2010.
The women must present themselves to authorities twice a month and are allowed to leave their houses only during certain daylight hours. Federal agents pay them a surprise visit at home once a month, adding to the feelings of anxiety.
"Somebody knocks on my door and I get scared," said Martinez, 50. "This fear is going to stay with me, I can't forget."
Martinez worked at Fresh Del Monte for three years and was about to return to Mexico when she was swept up in the raid.
She said she left her home country and her six children 16 years ago because her life was in danger. She sent money to feed and educate the children -- the youngest is now 17 -- but they had to abandon school when she was caught in the raid.
Another woman, 42-year-old Abdias Cortez, said her three U.S.-born adolescent children have had a hard time accepting that their mother might be deported. Cortez has spent 20 years illegally living in the United States, and worked at Fresh Del Monte for about two years.
"My children can't concentrate on their studies, they keep asking what's going to happen, whether we will have to separate," Cortez said.
To survive, the women have organized tamale sales, hosted salsa dancing classes and shared donations from supporters. They also have participated in human rights and leadership workshops, given presentations in schools and churches, and attended regional immigration conferences.
"Through our group, we learned to conquer our fears, our terror, and the repression we live with," Martinez said.
The support group transformed the women, said Pedro Sosa, regional organizer with the American Friends Service Committee and the group's facilitator.
"They have had the initiative to not stand by with their hands crossed," Sosa said. "They have learned their rights, they have become human-rights promoters. They have also educated others about the roots of immigration."
Another positive impact of the raid, said Portland immigration lawyer Siovhan Sheridan-Ayala, is that it brought the immigration crisis into the light and showed the inhumane side of the immigration system.
A civil lawsuit alleging dangerous conditions at Fresh Del Monte is pending, as is an ongoing criminal investigation by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
The women and their supporters called for swift immigration reform that "treats immigrants as human beings rather than an exploitable work force," said Bob Brown of the Oregon New Sanctuary Movement.
"The raids have been an erroneous answer to solving the immigration problem," Sosa said. "They only separate families and damage the future of citizen children who will have to live in a country not their own."
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/women_caught_in_fresh_del_mont.html
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Postville: One year later
Published: Friday, May 15, 2009
The Phoenix of Phoenixville, PA
By Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas
It's been a year since the largest immigration raid in U.S. history. That was the day Pedrito's Mom was taken, and he has not seen her since. For Postville, May 12 is a day that will live in infamy.
A year later, the welcome signs still stand: "Iowa, Fields of Opportunity," "Postville, Hometown to the World," and "Agriprocessors, A Great Place to Work!" The town would like to forget and move on, but nothing will ever be the same. Four times the world has come to Postville to mark its rise and fall: the Railroad (1864), Barnum & Bailey (1915), Agriprocessors (1987), and the Feds (2008).
There was a time when folks of 24 nationalities, speaking 17 languages, found their dream of freedom in this two-square-mile community with no traffic lights, nestled amid a sea of cornfields. The town was hailed as a model of ethnic integration for communities across the country. "I wish you had seen my town as it was before," a teary local muttered. "It used to be a success story."
Now, the social fabric is torn and the folks must pick up the pieces. The raid claimed three quarters of the plant's employees, one third of the school children, and nearly half of the town's population. As rooted family workers were taken, newcomers and drifters moved in. Crime followed. Folks who never locked their doors were afraid to walk the streets. Agents prowled among the drifters. People looked over their shoulder and whispered. Fear was in the air.
When the helicopters came and 900 armed agents stormed the town, children were hidden in basements for as long as two weeks, and fed under the door. Pedrito's mom said "Take me. I'm alone in this country." School children of all colors were living in fear. Many had nightmares that their parents too were taken away.
Close to 100 immigrant and 55 U.S.-born citizen children were either forced into exile and poverty or separated from their deported parents. As her mom sat in prison and was deported, Pedrito's little sister went every day to her bedroom and talked to her, pretending she was still there. Pedrito has written a letter to President Obama and the First Lady, pleading "Give my Mom a three-day visa, so she can come to my middle school graduation, and see that I kept my promise." Will he receive a response?
A year later, there are still 28 women forbidden to work or to leave with GPS ankle monitors waiting for a deportation hearing. Another 12 adults and 30 children still wait in legal limbo. After serving their sentence, 41 men were forced to come back as material witness against the employer. They were given temporary work permits, but work is scarce. As a twist of irony, almost half of them are back at Agriprocessors.
The plant was never able to replace the workers taken by the raid. Mounting expenses and sanctions drove Agriprocessors into bankruptcy. A massive debt remains unpaid; money stopped flowing into town; businesses closed; storefronts sit empty; homes are in foreclosure; revenue plummeted; and the mayor resigned. The enforcement medicine worked, but it killed the patient. Nobody is the better for it.
The cost of the raid, prosecution, and deportation to taxpayers exceeds $15 million and counting. The regional loss of business from Agriprocessors' downfall surpasses $200 million per year, which means the further loss of hundreds of American jobs. Greenspan was right. Migrants, as it turns out, create higher-level jobs for Americans.
The significance of Postville is that it shows the devastation that our ill-conceived enforcement policy is having in communities across the country. While in larger cities the impact is diluted and easier to deny, here the ill has nowhere to hide. Postville is ground zero for comprehensive immigration reform.
A year later, the town forgives. Officials forget. The nation remembers.
http://www.phoenixvillenews.com/articles/2009/05/15/opinion/srv0000005344065.txt
The Phoenix of Phoenixville, PA
By Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas
It's been a year since the largest immigration raid in U.S. history. That was the day Pedrito's Mom was taken, and he has not seen her since. For Postville, May 12 is a day that will live in infamy.
A year later, the welcome signs still stand: "Iowa, Fields of Opportunity," "Postville, Hometown to the World," and "Agriprocessors, A Great Place to Work!" The town would like to forget and move on, but nothing will ever be the same. Four times the world has come to Postville to mark its rise and fall: the Railroad (1864), Barnum & Bailey (1915), Agriprocessors (1987), and the Feds (2008).
There was a time when folks of 24 nationalities, speaking 17 languages, found their dream of freedom in this two-square-mile community with no traffic lights, nestled amid a sea of cornfields. The town was hailed as a model of ethnic integration for communities across the country. "I wish you had seen my town as it was before," a teary local muttered. "It used to be a success story."
Now, the social fabric is torn and the folks must pick up the pieces. The raid claimed three quarters of the plant's employees, one third of the school children, and nearly half of the town's population. As rooted family workers were taken, newcomers and drifters moved in. Crime followed. Folks who never locked their doors were afraid to walk the streets. Agents prowled among the drifters. People looked over their shoulder and whispered. Fear was in the air.
When the helicopters came and 900 armed agents stormed the town, children were hidden in basements for as long as two weeks, and fed under the door. Pedrito's mom said "Take me. I'm alone in this country." School children of all colors were living in fear. Many had nightmares that their parents too were taken away.
Close to 100 immigrant and 55 U.S.-born citizen children were either forced into exile and poverty or separated from their deported parents. As her mom sat in prison and was deported, Pedrito's little sister went every day to her bedroom and talked to her, pretending she was still there. Pedrito has written a letter to President Obama and the First Lady, pleading "Give my Mom a three-day visa, so she can come to my middle school graduation, and see that I kept my promise." Will he receive a response?
A year later, there are still 28 women forbidden to work or to leave with GPS ankle monitors waiting for a deportation hearing. Another 12 adults and 30 children still wait in legal limbo. After serving their sentence, 41 men were forced to come back as material witness against the employer. They were given temporary work permits, but work is scarce. As a twist of irony, almost half of them are back at Agriprocessors.
The plant was never able to replace the workers taken by the raid. Mounting expenses and sanctions drove Agriprocessors into bankruptcy. A massive debt remains unpaid; money stopped flowing into town; businesses closed; storefronts sit empty; homes are in foreclosure; revenue plummeted; and the mayor resigned. The enforcement medicine worked, but it killed the patient. Nobody is the better for it.
The cost of the raid, prosecution, and deportation to taxpayers exceeds $15 million and counting. The regional loss of business from Agriprocessors' downfall surpasses $200 million per year, which means the further loss of hundreds of American jobs. Greenspan was right. Migrants, as it turns out, create higher-level jobs for Americans.
The significance of Postville is that it shows the devastation that our ill-conceived enforcement policy is having in communities across the country. While in larger cities the impact is diluted and easier to deny, here the ill has nowhere to hide. Postville is ground zero for comprehensive immigration reform.
A year later, the town forgives. Officials forget. The nation remembers.
http://www.phoenixvillenews.com/articles/2009/05/15/opinion/srv0000005344065.txt
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Postville prosecutors used a flawed identity-theft law
The Register's editorial
May 12, 2009
It might have turned out differently for many immigrant workers who received five-month prison sentences following the federal raid at Postville a year ago today. Had the U.S. Supreme Court issued its sensible ruling in an identity-theft case earlier, federal prosecutors would have had less leverage to compel defendants to accept a plea agreement that included prison time.
The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa had a powerful weapon in the cases of about 260 of more than 300 defendants. They were charged with aggravated identity theft, a federal crime that adds a mandatory minimum of two years in federal prison on top of any other penalties for related immigration-law violations.
Critics argue that last year's assembly-line prosecutions of Postville workers were based on a misreading of the federal statute that makes it illegal to "knowingly" transfer, possess or use another person's identity. They say the government should have been forced to prove that instead of intending to use fictitious names, Social Security numbers or other identifying information, the accused, in fact, knew the information belonged to an actual person.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed: In a unanimous ruling in an unrelated case handed down May 4, the court held the government in such cases must prove the defendant knew the identifying information belonged to another person. "As a matter of ordinary English grammar, it seems natural to read the statute's word 'knowingly' as applying to all the subsequently listed elements of the crime," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court.
Although it's apparently too late for the Postville workers who forfeited their right to trial by pleading guilty, their stories might have had a different ending. Since proving actual knowledge in identity-theft cases is more difficult than assuming the accused had such knowledge, these defendants would have been in a better position to make the government prove its case. Instead of seeing little alternative to accepting plea offers, many charged with aggravated identity theft might have gone to trial, or at least might have been able to bargain for deportation without prison time.
Since the court's decision is based on its reading of the statute, rather than a constitutional right, it would be a simple matter for Congress to amend the statute. That is not necessary, however. Proving knowledge outside of the immigration context is not difficult when defendants use real people's identities to raid bank accounts.
Most immigrants here illegally are not interested in stealing people's identities in the way identity thieves are out to steal assets; they are looking for a way to earn a living wage. Congress should allow that by making it easier for immigrant workers to come to this country to meet work-force needs, and by allowing those already here, leading otherwise law-abiding lives, to remain here legally.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090512/OPINION03/905120358/-1/SPORTS12
May 12, 2009
It might have turned out differently for many immigrant workers who received five-month prison sentences following the federal raid at Postville a year ago today. Had the U.S. Supreme Court issued its sensible ruling in an identity-theft case earlier, federal prosecutors would have had less leverage to compel defendants to accept a plea agreement that included prison time.
The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa had a powerful weapon in the cases of about 260 of more than 300 defendants. They were charged with aggravated identity theft, a federal crime that adds a mandatory minimum of two years in federal prison on top of any other penalties for related immigration-law violations.
Critics argue that last year's assembly-line prosecutions of Postville workers were based on a misreading of the federal statute that makes it illegal to "knowingly" transfer, possess or use another person's identity. They say the government should have been forced to prove that instead of intending to use fictitious names, Social Security numbers or other identifying information, the accused, in fact, knew the information belonged to an actual person.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed: In a unanimous ruling in an unrelated case handed down May 4, the court held the government in such cases must prove the defendant knew the identifying information belonged to another person. "As a matter of ordinary English grammar, it seems natural to read the statute's word 'knowingly' as applying to all the subsequently listed elements of the crime," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court.
Although it's apparently too late for the Postville workers who forfeited their right to trial by pleading guilty, their stories might have had a different ending. Since proving actual knowledge in identity-theft cases is more difficult than assuming the accused had such knowledge, these defendants would have been in a better position to make the government prove its case. Instead of seeing little alternative to accepting plea offers, many charged with aggravated identity theft might have gone to trial, or at least might have been able to bargain for deportation without prison time.
Since the court's decision is based on its reading of the statute, rather than a constitutional right, it would be a simple matter for Congress to amend the statute. That is not necessary, however. Proving knowledge outside of the immigration context is not difficult when defendants use real people's identities to raid bank accounts.
Most immigrants here illegally are not interested in stealing people's identities in the way identity thieves are out to steal assets; they are looking for a way to earn a living wage. Congress should allow that by making it easier for immigrant workers to come to this country to meet work-force needs, and by allowing those already here, leading otherwise law-abiding lives, to remain here legally.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090512/OPINION03/905120358/-1/SPORTS12
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)