Class Action Immigration Lawsuit Dismissed
By: Gerri L. Elder
A federal class action lawsuit filed on behalf of immigrant workers who were detained after an immigration raid at a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa has been dismissed at the request of the immigration lawyers that filed the lawsuit, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The lawsuit claimed that the rights of the nearly 400 illegal immigrants that were detained in the bust had been violated. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) entered Agriprocessors Inc. in Postville, Iowa on May 12 and proceeded with what the U.S. attorney's officials have called the largest single immigration raid in American history.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division and several government officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, were named in the lawsuit that was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa in the days following the workplace immigration raid. Three of the petitioners in the class action lawsuit, Roman Candido, Antonin Candido and Maria del Refugio Masias, were specifically named.
The complaint alleged that the illegal immigrants' constitutional rights were violated by government agencies and officials by arbitrary and indefinite detention. The lawsuit also claimed that the immigrant workers' rights to consult with immigration lawyers had been violated and that a senior immigration official had said that the workplace immigration raid had taken place partly because there was evidence that Agriprocessors was in violation of federal wage and labor laws. It was also alleged that the company undertook criminal enterprises that violated racketeering laws.
One immigration lawyer who had interviewed some of the illegal immigrants that were detained after the raid alleged in the lawsuit that Agriprocessors had obtained fake identification for the immigrant workers, improperly deducted money from the workers' pay for "immigration fees," physically abused the workers, failed to compensate them for overtime hours and deprived workers of restroom breaks during their 10-hour shifts.
The immigration lawyers filed the lawsuit in an attempt to prevent the immigrant workers from being transferred out of the state in order to protect their rights. In similar workplace immigration raids, illegal immigrants who were arrested were moved to out-of-state detention centers.
As victims of crimes committed by their employer, the immigrant workers are eligible for a type of visa that will allow them to gain legal status. The lawsuit said that if they were to be transferred out of Iowa, their rights under the Crime Victims' Rights Act would be violated.
The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed on July 1 because immigration lawyers representing the immigrants said that the demands set forth in the complaint were met in an agreement with the government. The illegal immigrants who were detained in the raid will be kept in the area in order for them to have access to their attorneys and remain in close proximity to their families.