Editorial for Des Moines Register

It sounds like a simple approach to this country's illegal immigration problems: Crack down on businesses that employ undocumented workers.

But it's not so simple. Just consider the jury's verdict of “not guilty” for Sholom Rubashkin. The former Agriprocessors Inc. executive had been charged with scores of child labor violations and was acquitted on all of them. The Iowa Attorney General's Office alleged Rubashkin knew there were many children working in the Postville slaughterhouse prior to the 2008 federal immigration raid - but that he did nothing to put a stop to it.

Editorial: Prosecutions are Not the Answer to Immigration

Editorial for Des Moines Register

It sounds like a simple approach to this country’s illegal immigration problems: Crack down on businesses that employ undocumented workers.

But it’s not so simple. Just consider the jury’s verdict of “not guilty” for Sholom Rubashkin. The former Agriprocessors Inc. executive had been charged with scores of child labor violations and was acquitted on all of them. The Iowa Attorney General’s Office alleged Rubashkin knew there were many children working in the Postville slaughterhouse prior to the 2008 federal immigration raid – but that he did nothing to put a stop to it.

The jury’s verdict was heavily influenced by the fact that the young workers readily admitted on the witness stand that they had lied about their identities, and provided false documentation to get jobs at the plant. Prosecutors were unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt Rubashkin knowingly and intentionally employed kids.

It’s too easy for U.S. employers to simply accept fraudulent documents – or turn a blind eye to them – and hire people who are lying about who they are, or how old they are. Whether the untruths are about an applicant’s age or immigration status, it is difficult for prosecutors to prove the employers were fully aware of what was going on.

It’s yet another example of what happens in a country with a broken immigration system. In fact, the mess in Postville put Iowa in the unfortunate position of witnessing other reasons why immigration reform is needed.

There was the raid of Agriprocessors two years ago, in which families and a community were torn apart. Federal immigration agents descended on the slaughterhouse and arrested nearly 400 workers. Parents were incarcerated, leaving frightened children behind. Businesses patronized by the workers closed.

During the trial on child-labor charges, scores of former workers testified about the horrific working conditions in the plant. They recounted for the jury stories of their youth – which included a meat hook stabbed into one young man’s cheekbone, eyes burning from exposure to chemicals and teens working 12-hour shifts that ran through the night. Their stories speak to the unconscionable conditions when people are forced to live in the shadows of a society. They have nowhere to turn when they’re mistreated, fearing complaints will draw authorities’ attention.

And then, when the government attempts to go after the employers, it finds itself mired down in a lengthy and expensive trial that is difficult to win. Though found not guilty on the state’s child-labor charges, Rubashkin faces sentencing later this month following conviction for federal charges of financial fraud.

Clearly, the route to solving illegal immigration is not through the courtroom. Congress and the president must finally repair the nation’s broken immigration system. That includes setting realistic immigration quotas to meet workforce demands, a flexible guest-worker program, and a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are in good standing. It also must include a system to ensure that workers are who they say they are – so the government can hold employers accountable for who they put to work in their slaughterhouses.

6 Comments

  • Legal Citizen

    Hilarious. We HAVE a system in place, people would just prefer to not use it, to be undocumented, to lie, to take advantage of it and claim it doesn’t work.

    I’ve met many people from Europe and other countries who have done the paperwork, who did everything they could to work here legally. I am not for making Mexicans an exception to the law.

    Illegal = NOT in good standing.

  • Mendel

    It’s easy to vilify illegals and talk tough about enforcing the law. It’s a whole different matter when it affects you personally. Suddenly things aren’t so black and white anymore.All of those showboating raids were nothing more than empty symbolism and a bit of red meat designed to temporarily satiate the right-wing base while doing absolutely nothing to address the larger problem, namely porous borders.

    Until the people of this country wake up and realize that there will be no large-scale roundup of illegals, that they have become a central part of our labor force, and that the only way to solve this problem is with comprehensive immigration reform and the enforcement of our borders, we are doomed to more silly raids that will destroy many more lives and accomplish nothing of value.

  • U.S. of A.

    It’s a ridiculously mixed up way of thinking. Our government allows illegals to enter, and to stay, and to get driver’s licenses. But an employer is not allowed to give them a job. This is the unfortunate reality that we live in – under a government that cannot think straight.
    If we are gonna let them stay, the very least we can do is let them get jobs. And if we are not going to let them stay, then send them home. The whole country goes berserk when Arizona makes it illegal to be in their state illegally, but if you give them a job, you have to go to jail?
    We have totally lost our minds.

  • CR

    What is needed is for INS to have a sort of “poor man’s” H1B visa in place for temporary migrant workers. The entire “illegal immigration” problem exists because there is a huge supply of people wanting to work in El Norte and a huge demand for their cheap labor here. Let them come legally and temporarily, let them have some legal protection from the “coyotes” and from unethical operators who would take advantage.

    And then let them go back home and reapply as often as they wish.

  • Astonished

    If they are “ILLEGAL” they have no RIGHTS here —just humanitarian!No money no jobs no nothing–our rights are reserved for CITIZENS!!! and those that do the legal work to be here “LEGALLY”….Not to those who blatantly break the laws of our Country…What is so difficult about that? Has the whole world gone crazy.

  • aprpeh

    The raid on Agriprocessors and the unfortunate upcoming sentencing of Sholom Rubashkin (Hashem should have mercy on him), are not reason to shift from a position of a upholding the law and strengthening it. Not only should employers be held accountable for whom they hire, they must be held accountable for whom they hire. Calling for guest worker programs and to essentially turn a blind eye to the illegal and criminal nature of the human traffiking of workers will not help Reb. Sholom. The US must maintain integrity of her borders and make it easier for employers to conduct meaningful and serious background checks for rights to work in the country. There is both a supply and demand equation to this problem. It is not a more moral or humane solution to offer “guest” workers a jump ahead of the line over other non-Americans for entry to the country and I would go so far as to say it is immoral to offer those residing in the US now illegally amnesty of any sort.