Tuesday morning, we arrived at 9am at the Cattle Congress, to meet up with the immigration lawyers to assist with the initial consultations with the detainees. There we sat until 10:30 just inside the gate, as ICE was trying to figure out what to do with us. Our team consisted of 16 individuals – six immigration lawyers and ten others who were there for assisting in interpreting and filling out legal paperwork. My brother-in-law's sister and I were the only ones present who had never been involved with anything like this before – most of the others work closely with immigrants and immigration policy on a daily basis, and were just amazing people all around. So, we felt a little out of place, but we survived and a lot of learning took place.
The first part of our morning was spent filling out the legal paperwork for the attorneys, but after that, things were quite slow. We were just waiting around for the ICE officials to let us begin seeing the clients. The attorney for ICE was in and out of our trailer several times that morning, and at one point had told the lead immigration attorney that the detainees were already being interrogated inside, trying to get them to confess and incriminate themselves, without the chance to be represented. The immigration lawyers were pretty agitated that the rights of the detainees to have access to their lawyers prior to the questioning had been denied.
One woman that was also present as an interpreter, came back from a bathroom break, looking rather shocked, and on the verge of tears. While she was exiting the building, the guards instructed her to stop moving, as she had to wait for a group of detainees to be marched in. They walked in with handcuffs and shackles on their feet - hands and feet chained together. All of the men were chained to one another. Looks of terror, despair, fear, and confusion on their faces.
At 2:30 in the afternoon, the lead attorney that we were working with told us the investigation had taken an unexpected turn, and that the detainees were now being turned over to the feds, as they were being charged for federal crimes (identity theft), and they were no longer being charged for immigration violations. The immigration lawyers were not going to be given access to the detainees, so we packed up and headed home. As we were leaving, the FBI was heading into the hall that had been set up for questioning, located just across from the trailer we had been working out of all morning.
During the time we were there that morning, not once did I see a detainee myself. It was easier emotionally for me this way I suppose - as I didn't have to actually see the faces of those fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, husbands and wives, who are ready to lose everything. However, I woke up that morning with a drive inside me to do some good - to be able to be the voice for these people who at that moment were voiceless, and we ended up not being able to do anything. We met some amazing people that day, who have fought for the rights of immigrants for years. When we arrived that morning, they were going over with us the questions we should ask the detainees - things about how they've been treated, any medical issues they have, how they came to the states, if anybody helped them - if they had to pay somebody money to bring them across the border, and if they were still paying off that debt.
The attorneys and others present explained to us that there were many signs pointing to illegal human trafficking that had been going on - the fact that this plant used to be mainly Mexican, and within the past 3-4 years, the population of workers changed drastically, and that the plant's workforce was now 67% Guatemalan. We were told that obviously these changes happen - but for it to happen that rapidly just wasn't natural. Generally it would take much longer for the workforce to turn over like that.
We were also informed of several other worker's rights violations at the plant, and that they were employing under aged worker (ages 13-17 year olds).So, at this point, 390 immigrants have been detained, and the plant continues to run. How you ask? The day after the raid, bus loads of other workers were driven in from Nebraska and New York (I found today online - http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008805180309 - that the Agriprocessors plant in NY has had previous experience with undocumented workers, as they employed them until the workers tried to join a workers union. The plant then turned over lists of the undocumented workers names to the government, and fired all of the workers.) fishy?
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