Still_Aint_Your_Land's Blog

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Federal officials said Tuesday that they had detained 390 illegal immigrants after a raid on a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, in what they described as the largest single-site raid of its kind nationwide.

The detainees include 314 men and 76 women, according to figures released Tuesday by federal authorities. Fifty-six detainees - mostly women with young children - have been released under the supervision of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A similar factory raid in New Bedford, Mass., last year netted 361 arrests, most of whom faced deportation and were separated from their families. OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1')

"We're here to discuss not only the largest operation of its kind ever in Iowa, but in fact the largest single-site enforcement operation of its kind in the country," U.S. Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth said.

The detainees included 290 who claimed to be Guatemalans, 93 Mexicans, three Israelis and four Ukrainians. Among the detained were 12 juveniles, six of whom have been released.

Customs and law enforcement agents worked through the night processing the detainees, said Claude Arnold, the ICE special agent in charge of the operation. Detainees were "administratively arrested" but have not yet been criminally charged, he said.

Detainees who are charged with aggravated identity theft, unlawful use of a Social Security number or other offenses will be given lawyers and sent to appearances in one of three makeshift courtrooms at the detainee center in Waterloo, Iowa, Arnold said.

Arnold would not disclose how many people were involved in Monday's effort, citing security concerns.

Two injuries were reported at the detention center in Waterloo, Arnold said. One involved a man who fled from agents and injured his leg. The man was treated at a hospital and released. A second injury involved a customs agent who suffered minor cuts after slipping and falling down a stairwell.

Sorry amigos. This time even El Presidente Booosh can't save you.

"The plans went very well" so far, Arnold said. "This is a huge undertaking."

Dummermuth declined to comment about possible charges against managers at Agriprocessors, Inc., the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, citing the ongoing investigation. A federal affidavit released Monday detailed several eyewitness accounts of employee abuse, including one floor manager who allegedly struck a worker with a meat hook.

Nationwide, ICE agents arrested 863 people on criminal charges in 2007 and made more than 4,000 administrative arrests - a tenfold increase from five years before, according to the agency's Web site.

At St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Postville, Iowa, near the plant, tension prevailed as about 400 people waited and watched for the next sign that their lives would again be affected by the raid. Many believe U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are still in town.

One detainee agreed to speak to The Des Moines Register, but declined to be identified because of fear of recrimination by ICE. She will face charges of being in the country illegally and having false identification, and will likely be deported.

Inside the meatpacking plant on Monday morning, workers heard the agents before they saw them. The woman said a call came over the loudspeaker, announcing that ICE was in the plant. Many in the plant tried to hide. Some ran.

"No one had a clue" a raid was coming, she said in Spanish, despite rumors during the weekend that were discussed at an immigration-rights advocates' meeting in Waterloo. "Everyone scampered, everyone tried to get away."

Sure, we'll keep "famalies" together. Together in Mexico

ICE agents with pistols called for those hiding to come out. "Once they knew they couldn't get away, they came down from their hiding places," she said.

The agents grouped those with identification from those without it, then put the second group in single-file lines. They were frisked, told to remove any sweaters or heavy garments and shackled - handcuffs were placed on their wrists and attached to their waists, and their feet were cuffed as well.

"There was no mistreatment," she said. "They told us to sit. We sat."

She was instructed to fill out paperwork that detailed her date of birth and country of origin. She is from Guatemala but said she told investigators that she was from Mexico.

When she's deported, she said she would rather be taken to Mexico, where it will be easier to reenter America.

Barack Obama is easily winning the African American vote, but to woo Latinos, where he is running 3-to-1 behind rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he is taking a giant risk: spotlighting his support for the red-hot issue of granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

It's a huge issue for Latinos, who want them. It's also a huge issue for the general electorate, which most vehemently does not. Obama's stand could come back to haunt him not only in a general election, but with other voters in states such as California, where driver's licenses for illegal immigrants helped undo former Gov. Gray Davis.

Clinton stumbled into that minefield in a debate last fall and quickly backed off. First she suggested a New York proposal for driver's licenses for illegal immigrants might be reasonable. Then she denied endorsing the idea, and later came out against them.

Asked directly about the issue now, her California campaign spokesman said Clinton "believes the solution is to pass comprehensive immigration reform."

"Barack Obama has not backed down" on driver's licenses for undocumented people, said Federico Peña, a former Clinton administration Cabinet member and Denver mayor now supporting Obama. "I think when the Latino community hears Barack's position on such an important and controversial issue, they'll understand that his heart and his intellect is with Latino community."

Obama's intention is to draw distinctions between himself and Clinton on what are otherwise indistinguishable positions on immigration. Both have adopted the standard Democratic approach of favoring tougher enforcement along with earned legalization.

The Illinois senator is differentiating himself in three key areas: driver's licenses, a promise to take up immigration reform his first year in office, and his background as the son of an immigrant (his father was Kenyan) and a community organizer in Chicago.

Obama made the promise to Latino leaders to take up immigration reform in his first year after Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the Democratic caucus, said his party might not raise the divisive issue again until the next president's second term, assuming a Democrat wins.

Latino leaders felt betrayed. For them, an immigration overhaul is a top priority in light of state and local crackdowns on illegal immigrants and federal raids in workplaces across the country.

Clinton has not made such a promise, saying only that she would make her best efforts.

"Those issues are huge," said Obama supporter and state Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, vice chairman of the California Latino Legislative Caucus.

Democratic pollsters Stan Greenberg and James Carville issued a direct warning on the driver's license issue in an analysis last month designed to guide Democrats through the treacherous immigration quagmire.

"The findings about driver's licenses are particularly notable," they said. Two-thirds of surveyed voters oppose them, the pollsters found, and the safety argument fails to dent the widespread conviction that granting a driver's license rewards illegal behavior.

But it will definitely work with Latinos, said John Trasviña, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "Clinton and (Sen. John) Edwards have said no driver's licenses for unauthorized immigrants," Trasviña said. "Sen. Obama has said you get a driver's license if you know how to drive. And that message I think will resonate in the Latino community as we get closer to California."

Hillary Clinton's biggest asset is "El Presidente."

Thanks to Bill Clinton's presidency, during which he lavished attention on Latinos, and her own eight years as first lady, Hillary Clinton enjoys enormous name recognition among Latinos.

Hillary picked up early endorsements from leading Latinos such as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and fabled farmworker organizer Dolores Huerta.

Clinton opened her new East Lost Angeles campaign office Saturday with three Latina members of Congress: Hilda Solis, Grace Napolitano and Lucille Roybal-Allard.

Obama has lined up several lesser-known officials, including Assemblyman Joe Coto, D-San Jose, chair of the Latino Legislative Caucus, as well as Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Cerritos, who split from her sister, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Clinton backer from Garden Grove.

While Clinton has the backing of the United Farm Workers, Obama has picked up the endorsement of Unite Here, a heavily immigrant service workers union.

Both camps discount speculation of simmering racial hostility that might make some Latinos reluctant to vote for a black man.

"The familiarity with President Clinton has given her a very, very big lead from the beginning," said Maria Elena Durazo, secretary-treasurer for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor who is campaigning for Obama.

If there were racial animosity, "obviously we would have to address that very directly," Durazo said. But mostly the response Durazo gets when she asks Latinos about Obama is, "Who is he? I don't know who he is," whereas with Clinton, the answer comes back, "We know Presidente Bill Clinton."

Maria Echaveste, a UC Berkeley law lecturer advising the Clinton campaign, agreed. "Everyone is so quick to jump on" the racial angle, she said. "But, frankly, I think the explanation is a much greater number of people know her and love Bill Clinton."

Huerta, a longtime Latina activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union, scoffed at Obama's credentials with Latinos. Clinton worked in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas as a young woman, she said, while Obama was missing in action during two major activist events in Chicago, once when Elvira Arellano sought church sanctuary to avoid deportation, and another time when two Latino men were falsely accused of murder.

"He's now trying to build a relationship, but it's just not there," Huerta said. In Nevada, casino workers dubbed themselves "Hilarios," she said, meaning Hillary supporters. "This came from the people."

With Obama, she said, "A lot of them would say, 'Señor como se llama?' They didn't know Obama's name."

Latinos also trust Clinton, Huerta said. "Support for her is not just support; it's enthusiastic support. In fact, I haven't seen anything like this since the Bobby Kennedy campaign back in '68."

Obama has begun airing campaign ads on Spanish-language TV and his supporters are working hard to promote Obama's activist Chicago roots, which Peña declared forged "a personal connection with Latinos that no other candidate has had."

Added Durazo, "He's the son of an immigrant, he's the son of a single mother who sacrificed a lot to make sure he got his education. All of those issues resonate with a hotel housekeeper, a construction worker, a day laborer. ... I have great hope that we're going to break through that gap in a big way."

THIS IS GONNA BE A WILD RIDE!

FOX DOESN'T LIKE THE TRUTH!!!

They used to be the voice of conservatives, but like every other mainstream media giant they've been infiltrated and destroyed by Aztlan ideologues and anti-American troop bashers.

Commies can't seem to handle or will tolerate opposing viewpoints, but guess what, there's a big surprise coming. I'm here to get this party started and keep it "FAIR AND BALANCED"..

Stay tuned for a lot of off color, cutting edge, offensive and extremely accurate editorials guys! Banning me only made me a martyr!