The Shaming of America

**Since I wrote this article I heard that a fund had been established to help these and other immigrants**
www.imigrateusa.us>

Also email the senators for Iowa
Chuck Grassley www.grassley.senate.gov>
and Tom Harkin www.harkin.senate.gov>
they are both big names on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
The Representative for the Pottsville area is Bruce Bailey who on all accounts seems to be very socially conscious and active can be reached at www.bailey.house.gov>

Also to keep upto date on events visit the National Immigration Law Center at www.nilc.org>

First we had Katrina, then the Abu Grav prison scandel, followed by the ongoing saga at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and now this immigration scandel. It seems to me that economically and morally, America is falling apart at a spectacular pace.

I have posted the first part of article by a court translator Erik Camayd-Freixas who I thank from the bottom of my heart for bringing the issue to our attenton. The entire artilce is on the WBUR link along with much more.

When I figture out what protest group is trying to close down the factory, or if you know of one let me know and I will post it. IF you are an American, email your sentors and representatives that this is not the behaviour we expect from business in our country. Lastly make a connection between production and consumerism - think; It is your responsibliity.

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Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in US History: after the Largest ICE Raid in US History:

A Personal Account by Erik Camayd-Freixas, Ph.D.
Florida International University 0 June 13, 2008

On Monday, May 12, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in an operation involving some 900 agents,Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed a raid of Agriprocessors Inc, the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant located in the town of Postville, Iowa. The raid –officials boasted– was “the largest single-site operation of its kind in American history.”

At that same hour, 26 federally certified interpreters from all over the country were en route to the small neighboring city of Waterloo, Iowa, having no idea what their mission was about. The investigation had started more than a year earlier. Raid preparations had begun in December. The Clerk’s Office of the U.S. District Court had contracted the interpreters a month ahead, but was not at liberty to tell us the whole truth, lest the impending raid be compromised.

The operation was led by ICE, which belongs to the executive branch, whereas the U.S. District Court, belonging to the judicial branch, had to formulate its own official reason for participating. ...

We arrived at the heavily guarded compound, went through security, and gathered inside the retro “Electric Park Ballroom” where a makeshift court had been set up. The Clerk of Court, who coordinated the interpreters, said: “Have you seen the news? There was an immigration raid yesterday at 10am. They have some 400 detainees here. We’ll be working late conducting initial appearances for the next few days.” He then gave us a cursory tour of the compound.

The NCC is a 60-acre cattle fairground that had been transformed into a sort of concentration camp or detention center. Fenced in behind the ballroom / courtroom were 23 trailers from federal authorities, including two set up as sentencing courts; various Homeland Security buses and an “incident response” truck; scores of ICE agents and U.S. Marshals; and in the background two large buildings: a pavilion where agents and prosecutors had established a command center; and a gymnasium filled with tight rows of cots where some 300 male detainees were kept, the women being housed in county jails. Later the NCC board complained to the local newspaper that they had been “misled” by the government when they leased the grounds purportedly for Homeland Security training.

Echoing what I think was the general feeling, one of my fellow interpreters would later exclaim: “When I saw what it was really about, my heart sank…” Then began the saddest procession I have ever witnessed, which the public would never see, because cameras were not allowed past the perimeter of the compound (only a few journalists came to court the following days, notepad in hand). Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of one of my fellow interpreters would later exclaim: “ They appeared to be uniformly no more than 5 ft. tall, mostly illiterate Guatemalan peasants with Mayan last names, some being relatives (various Tajtaj, Xicay, Sajché, Sologüí…), some in tears; others with faces of worry, fear, and embarrassment. They all spoke Spanish, a few rather laboriously.

www.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/07/the-postville-raid