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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. Agriprocessors, the dominant kosher food company in the nation, is owned by the Rubashkin family. a politically-connected clan from Brooklyn, New York. Sholom Rubashkin stepped down as the company’s CEO after the raid that resulted in the arrest of 389 undocumented workers, most of whom were convicted of criminal wrongdoing and will be deported to Guatemala or Mexico.
De La Rosa-Loera, of unknown immigration status, was in charge of the poultry facility and three other departments at Agriprocessors. Guerrero-Espinoza, a U.S. citizen, supervised beef kill as well as three other departments at the plant.
According to court records, the two were indicted by a federal grand jury that included testimony from immigrants arrested in the raid and a former human resources employee at Agriprocessors. Testimony indicated that the two worked in the weeks leading up to the raid to update employee documents.
The indictment alleges that a few days before the execution of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement search warrant at Agriprocessors, Guerrero-Espinoza told a group of employees that they needed new identification and social security numbers in order to continue working at the plant. He then, according to testimony, told the workers that they would need to provide him with a photograph and $200 or $220. Fraudulent resident alien cards were allegedly supplied to Agriprocessors workers. Guerrero-Espinoza is charged with aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft, and encouraging aliens to illegally reside in the U.S.
The complaint against De La Rosa-Loera alleges he told some undocumented workers that they could not longer be employed at Agriprocessors because their identification was bad. He later allegedly told those same employees that they could return to work using the same names that had previously been used for employment. De La Rosa-Loera is charged with aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identity documents and encouraging aliens to illegally reside in the U.S.
If found guilty, both men face up to 20 years in federal prison. Both are currently being held in the Cedar County jail, under the supervision of the U.S. Marshals. A detention hearing has been set for Monday and arraignment will be July 17.
Court documents also indicate that the May 12 raid resulted in the seizure of dozens of fraudulent permanent alien residents cards from the Agriprocessors human services offices.
Charges pending against Amara remain sealed at this time. Anyone with information as to Amara's whereabouts should phone Immigration and Customs Enforcement at 866-347-2423.
Comments (2)
I guess it's a start that three officials at Agriprocessors have been indicted I think we all know that the employment of illegal immigrants was known about and condoned at much more senior levels.
Justice should operate at all levels not just the lowest on the ladder...
Posted by uk immigration serf | July 6, 2008 1:01 AM
Posted on July 6, 2008 01:01
On May 23rd of this year, Uri L’Tzedek wrote an open letter to Aaron Rubashkin, expressing how deeply upset we were by evidence of worker mistreatment in his company, Agriprocessors, and calling on the community of kosher consumers to join us in demanding change. Since the outset of our campaign, Uri L’Tzedek has sought protection and fair treatment for workers at Agriprocessors’ Postville plant. Our effort has been guided by the spirit of Rabbi Yosef Breuer of blessed memory and his 1949 essay “Glatt Kosher - Glatt Yosher,” where he describes strict standards of kashrut and strict standards of ethics. As Rabbi Breuer wrote: “God’s Torah not only demands the observance of kashrut and the sanctification of our physical enjoyment; it also insists on the sanctification of our social relationships.”
The Jewish community in general and the observant community in particular are bound to the people who provide our food through the sacred social relationships of worker, employer, and consumer. Through this campaign, we have given voice to thousands of observant Jews who believe that the standards of kashrut of our food be matched by the kashrut of our ethics, and their voice has been heard loudly and clearly.
After the events of the May 11 federal raid at the Agriprocessors plant, and the release of government reports, affidavits, and media surrounding working conditions at the plant, thousands of observant Jews felt those sacred social relationships had been damaged. Uri L’Tzedek responded to those events with a letter that asked Agriprocessors to pay its workers a minimum wage and recommit to abiding by all U.S. law relating to worker safety and rights. In order to ensure that the company meets these modest requests, we asked that the company establish a department and staff to deal exclusively with these concerns.
In recent weeks, Agriprocessors retained James Martin, former Senior Federal U.S. Attorney to serve as Chief Compliance Officer for the company. Mr. Martin has instituted a number of important reforms including: the creation of an anonymous tip line for employees to report safety and rights violations without fear of retribution; establishment of a safety department within the company that is staffed by an officer and assistant (with plans for two additional employees); and development of new safety training initiatives. Mr. Martin has also assured us that his term is expected to last at least one year. His role, according to communications between Uri L’Tzedek and Agriprocessors, is to set in place the procedures and personnel to ensure that the compliance effort is “continual, robust, and permanent.” Mr. Martin, a reputable and skilled attorney with years of experience prosecuting corporate crime, has now accepted on himself and his firm, the Prevene Group, the professional responsibility to ensure the company treats its workers with the respect, dignity, and rights that are demanded by U.S. law.
We believe that through hiring Mr. Martin, Agriprocessors is beginning to take significant steps towards directly addressing the concerns of the Jewish leaders and consumers who signed our May 23rd letter. In light of these early signs of reform, Uri L’Tzedek is no longer calling for the community to abstain from purchasing Agriprocessors’ products. Time will show what kind of results these reforms will yield for the workers at Agriprocessors, but the social justice philosophy of Uri L’Tzedek is one deeply committed to challenging what is broken in our world but partnering to support efforts towards fixing it.
We are inspired by all the people throughout North America and the world who have raised their voice on this critical issue. Their participation in this effort has been the critical foundation of our work, and it has generated crucial moral awareness and has yielded impressive results. We are similarly thankful to the Agriprocessors corporation and the Rubashkin family, who by and large have engaged in a respectful dialogue.
If Agriprocessors does not implement Mr. Martin’s recommendations or demonstrates that it is not committed to full compliance with all laws regarding worker safety, pay, and rights, then we will once again raise our concerns with Agriprocessors and with the community of kosher consumers.
There are still matters of great concern in Postville: shattered families left without wage earners, mothers unable to find jobs to pay for basic necessities, children thousands of miles from home living in fear of another raid, a broken Postville economy, and deeply flawed federal immigration policy. Addressing these larger issues is integral to our work as activists. Uri L’Tzedek leadership has helped raise significant funds for the families deeply hurt by the raids and has met with U.S. House and Senate staff, and has had a conversation with Senator Joseph Lieberman, Head of the Department of Homeland Security to express our concerns about the human suffering that results from these kinds of enforcement tactics.
These events strengthen our conviction that Klal Yisrael and the Orthodox community are committed to leading the way in creating a just society and sanctifying the Name of God. We believe that this campaign signals a new level of communal expectation of all our businesses to conduct themselves with the highest standards of yashrut and tzedek, ethics and justice.
Posted by Uri L'Tzedek | July 8, 2008 9:18 PM
Posted on July 8, 2008 21:18