Rubashkin Trial Witnesses Want To Go Home

Undocumented workers held in "immigration limbo" since raid.

Rubashkin trial witnesses wait ... and want to go home
BY TONY LEYS • Des Moines Register

Decorah, Ia. - The legal battle against Agriprocessors' Sholom Rubashkin has snared more than two dozen of his former employees in immigration limbo.

The meatpacking workers, mostly men, were among hundreds of Guatemalans and Mexicans captured in the May 2008 immigration raid at the Postville plant. They were sent to prison for five months for using false documents to stay in the United States. About to be deported home, they were ordered to return to Iowa to testify in Rubashkin's Dec. 2 immigration trial. They faced the possibility of being arrested again if they tried to leave the country.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Linda Reade approved a motion to drop all immigration-related charges against Rubashkin. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Teig declined to say Thursday whether the immigrants will be allowed to leave the United States.

There is still one trial pending in the Agriprocessors case. Brent Beebe, 52, the plant's former operations manager, was indicted a year ago on immigration-related charges. His trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 19 in federal court in Cedar Rapids.
One of the federal government's potential witnesses, Juventino Lopez, said he told authorities he would rather return to Guatemala than face an uncertain future in Iowa.

"I said, 'I don't want to stay any longer. I've done my five months in prison. My American dream is over,' " Lopez said through a Spanish translator.

He said he was offered a stark choice: Remain in prison for many months until his former boss' trial was held, or agree to return to Iowa and look for a temporary job so he could send money home to his wife and three children.
A South Dakota jury convicted Rubashkin on Nov. 11 of all but five of 91 federal charges of business fraud. His lawyer has announced plans to seek a new trial or lodge an appeal.

Federal authorities flew the former prisoners back to northeast Iowa in November 2008. Area churches banded together to help the immigrants patch together a life while they wait to be called to testify.

Local church leaders said federal authorities dumped the potential witnesses in Decorah and Postville without making arrangements for their housing, food or work. The men showed up in the November cold wearing light nylon pants, short-sleeve shirts and prison-issued shoes, which essentially were socks with thin soles, church leaders said.
The men said it took about six weeks to obtain work permits. They found few job opportunities in an area hit by the recession and the near-collapse of Agriprocessors, which used to be the region's largest employer.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on the way authorities handled the situation.

Lopez is living with five other Guatemalan men and a Mexican man in a house that church leaders found for them in Decorah, 29 miles from Postville. The seven men all have returned to work at the Postville meatpacking plant, which is under new ownership and is called Agri Star.
In their free time, the men wrote and have performed a play, called "The Story of Our Lives," which is about their experiences.

The men said working conditions have improved since Canadian businessman Hershey Friedman and his family bought the plant. But they said it's strange to continue working there.

Luis Moncada Quiros said he's reminded of the raid every time he enters the plant. "I didn't want to go back because of all the sad memories, and because of all of my friends who were no longer there," he said. "But we didn't have a lot of options, so we had to return there."
The witnesses have little hope their cooperation in the investigation will lead to legal immigration status. They expect to be deported after the pending litigation is completed.

Otto Ramiro Garcia, 32, said he doesn't understand why authorities need so many potential witnesses to stick around the United States. "They know what we're going to say" at the trial, he said. "We already know we're going to be deported. Let's get it done."

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Churches cover immigrants' debts

Decorah-area churches pitched in to ease the transition for nine Guatemalan and Mexican men who expect to be deported after testifying in any remaining legal proceedings.

The churches raised about $35,000 to repay loans the men took out back home so they could pay human smugglers, called "coyotes." Such loans, which carry interest rates up to 30 percent, can be ruinous to immigrants' families. The families often put up their houses as collateral, and they can become homeless if the loans are unpaid.

Carol Kress, minister of the Decorah United Methodist Church, said her congregation and other members of the Decorah Area Faith Coalition paid off the men's immigration loans as part of a plan called "Project Jubilee." The men agreed to repay the churches' money, and several of them have finished doing so, she said. Their payments were placed in an account at a Guatemalan agency that helps people get started in businesses or careers. The agency will help the men after they are deported.

Kress said one man plans to take classes so he can become a teacher. Another wants to start a coffee-roasting business. A third wants to sell shoes.

"We thought this was a way for them to build a future when they go back," she said. Organizers hope if the men can support themselves at home, they won't be tempted to sneak back into the United States, where they could face more prison time if they're caught.