Lawyers Sue Feds over Treatment of Illegal Workers
According to U.S. law, once you're in the United States, you are protected by the rights outlined in the Constitution. These include the "due process" rights: if you're facing criminal charges, you have the right to a lawyer, a jury trial and more. But a recent immigration raid in Postville, Iowa led to several alleged constitutional violations of illegal immigrants.
According to the Associated Press, the Postville immigration raid took place at Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse. Nearly 400 workers were snagged, sources indicate, making the raid the largest single immigration sweep the country's ever seen.
But it seems that the federal officials in charge of arresting and detaining the illegal workers didn't quite comply with the Fifth Amendment - that is, the feds may have violated the rights of many of the workers they arrested.
Lawyers for the slaughterhouse employees reportedly filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of about 147 of the apprehended workers, claiming that the arrest and holding of the illegal workers violated the Constitution. Specifically, lawyers charged Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and others with impeding workers' access to lawyers as well as arbitrarily and indefinitely detaining the workers.
Further, the attorneys apparently sought to keep their clients in Iowa during the suit. Evidently, ICE officials have moved detainees out of state in past hearings, making lawyer-client negotiations difficult and time-consuming.
Limited contact between a defendant and his or her legal representative can lead to inadequate legal defense, according to sources. And federal authorities have reportedly complied with the lawyers' requests: the detained workers will be kept in Iowa at least until their administrative bond hearings, which, according to one lawyer, could take as long as six months.
Unfortunately, it seems the abuses some workers faced did not begin with federal immigration authorities. According to an NBC News affiliate, many of the illegal workers were treated poorly by their employers, made to work long shifts without bathroom breaks, paid significantly less than their legal coworkers, denied parts of their paychecks for "immigration fees," and even physically abused.
While such treatment, if it happened, would constitute ghastly violations of civil rights by the employers, there may be a bright side. Sources indicate that, if the alleged abuses prove true, some workers may qualify for special visas that could legalize their residency in the United States.
Further, some of the workers evidently have family members who are legal residents and U.S. citizens, and may be able to pursue citizenship through those channels.
Federal officials, it seems, were reminded of the crucial fact that, in the United States, constitutional rights apply to everyone, regardless of legal status.
