Abused: Postville Raid Abused: Postville Raid is a documentary made by Luis Argueta. The documentary is about the Postville Raid that took place on May 12, 2008 at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. It was known to be one the largest, most expensive and brutal immigration raid in the history of the United States. Argueta reveals the devastating effects of enforcement policies on families, children and communities. The film serves as a cautionary tale against government abuses of the rule of law, the constitution and labor rights. The day of the raid, almost 400 illegal workers employed at the Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant were arrested. The arrested workers were taken from the plant to a nearby fairground, the National Cattle Congress, in Waterloo, Iowa. They were bound by handcuffs at the wrists and chained from the upper torso to their ankles in groups of ten. Hearings were being put on as fast as possible, sentencing five at a time over the course of the three days following the raid. Few workers were allowed to talk to attorneys before being presented before the judge.
These immigrant workers were arrested for having false identity paper and were charged with identity theft, document fraud, use of stolen social security numbers and other offenses. Most were convicted within four days of the arrest and sentenced to serve a five month prison sentence before being deported. Many of the immigrant workers had no prior criminal record so they were offered a plea agreement in exchange for a guilty plea to lesser charges than the mandatory two year sentence. About 297 workers accepted the agreement and pleaded guilty to document fraud. They pleaded guilty mostly because they did not understand what the judge was saying, or they knew there was no way out of going to prison so they wanted the fastest and least amount of time. They needed a short sentence because most workers were depended upon to provide for their families. After serving their sentence almost all were deported and never got to see their families again.
Forty-one of those that were arrested were allowed to stay in the United States after being granted a special visa, U-visa. This individuals suffered violent abuse while working at the plant. They got to stay in the country, but they were not completely free. Many have to wear ankle bracelets to allow the government to track their whereabouts. Agriprocessor Inc. filed for bankruptcy on November 5, 2008, less than six months after the raid. The City Council then declared Postville, Iowa a humanitarian and economic disaster area, but federal officials said the town did not qualify for the help. It was in July 2009, that Agriprocessors was bought at an auction and has now resumed production under the name of “Agri Star.”
I really enjoyed this documentary. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and was really surprised that I hadn’t hear of the raid when it first happened three years ago. Living relatively close to Postville, I probably should have known more about it, or known about it in general before seeing the documentary, but I didn’t. I thought the film was well produced; it was easy to follow and understand, and helped a lot to have subtitles at the bottom.
Besides the whole situation of the raid, I think there were two big events that were shocking for me to learn about. The first one was that the one of the judges that sentenced the workers knew that workers didn’t know what they were signing and knew that what they were doing was partially illegal and unethical, but he sentenced them anyways! That judge spoke on the film, which I thought was not a smart move on his part, about how he knew this was wrong and when Argueta asked him why he did it. His only response was, “If I didn’t do it, they would just get another judge that would.” I couldn’t believe it. I just don’t get how a human being, and one that has the power to stop it or at least speak up, didn’t say anything and just let this awful thing occur.
I also thought that what was craziest of all was that after all the arrests and deportations of the illegal workers, the owners of the plant didn’t get in trouble! That was so bizarre to me. The charges against Aaron Rubashkin and his son, Sholom Rubashkin, were dismissed. The only thing the government got them for was their irregularities of finances. Sholom was convicted of a $35 million bank fraud-charge and sentenced to 27 years in prison. They got in trouble for finances and got no blame or punishment for the illegal immigrants they were employing, the harsh working conditions, or the sexual assaults that were taking place at their plant. If our government can’t see that there is something extremely wrong with this situation, I’m extremely scared to see what else the government has done and who they are letting of the hook.
I hope there is a squeal or second documentary to this Postville Raid. I would really be interested on learning about the deported workers to see if they made it back to the United States, to their families. I’d also like to see what the town of Postville is like, and how much more of a long term impact the raid has made on it. The first documentary showed the short term effects, but I would like to see how bad the long term effects are. I also think it would be interesting to see where those workers and families are today, and if they want to come back to the United States. To be honest, if I was them, I don’t know if I would want to come back after the way I was treated.