Posted on 05/19/2008 2:32:17 PM PDT by heartwood
The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained 390 illegal immigrants May 13, 2008 in the largest single-site immigration raid in US history. The raid took place at Agriprocessors, Inc., the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant, located in the tiny town of Postville, Iowa. __________________
May, 2004. It began far from Iowa’s cornfields with the arrival of a Chinese national named Hu Yao Bin with his wife and two children on Cathay Pacific Airlines Flight CX872 at San Francisco’s international airport .
The paperwork Mr. Hu presented to immigration inspectors at the airport was in order. It showed that a US employer named Aaron Rubashkin, president of Agriprocessors, Inc. of Postville, Iowa, had petitioned successfully for the visa that Mr. Hu and his family presented to immigration inspectors.
It should have been another rubber stamp entry. But no sooner had Mr. Hu and his family been cleared to enter the United States, permanently, than Mr. Hu blundered badly. As they were leaving he asked the inspecting officer to forward his Legal Permanent Resident card to his intended address in San Francisco’s Chinatown—not to the kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa that was to be his place of employment.
Oops. That’s one heck of a commute. Mr. Hu was promptly referred to a second agent for questioning. He confessed everything in the second interview. In a sworn statement, Mr. Hu said that his friend, Mr. Hu Shu Bin, had obtained the immigrant visa from the American consulate in Guangzhou, China. Mr Hu had paid his friend US$30,000—the standard fee "snakeheads" charge for a valid visa in China.
In the statement, Mr. Hu Yao Bin stated that Mr. Hu Shu Bin had arranged for the family to immigrate through an American immigration lawyer named Christopher A. Teras, who, Mr Hu told the agent, had processed hundreds of these cases.
When the interview was over, Mr. Hu received a "deferred inspection". He was released with a request that he reappear voluntarily at a later date.
After Mr. Hu and his family left to start their new lives as Americans, an ICE agent telephoned Agriprocessors. It happened to be a Jewish holiday, so the plant was closed. But a security guard named Warren Timmerman was on duty, and he showed no reluctance to talk to to the agent.
He told the agent that, yes, "hundreds of Chinese" immigrants come to Postville to work at the slaughterhouse for a couple of weeks in order to fulfill their visa requirement, then disappear. ______
In addition to the Guatemalans that cross the border illegally and do the actual work in the slaughter house for 5-6 bucks an hour, Agriprocessors legally sponsors EW-3 visas for Chinese who pay SOMEBODY 30K for the privilege, enter the US, spend a couple weeks in Postville, and then go where they will.
Read the whole article at the link.
“After Mr. Hu and his family left to start their new lives as Americans”
Amazing, just friggin’ amazing, admit to violating the law and they let them go.
I’m unclear on whether the law was broken, because of the comment “work a couple of weeks to fulfill their visa requirement”.
Are they breaking the law, or is our visa requirements inadequate?
After reading this article, is anyone surprised that I am not a big fan of work visas?
I don’t believe he’s allowed to work for anyone else on that visa, but that’s not stopping some place in SF’s Chinatown from hiring him.
Yeah SF’s Chinatown or some top secret military lab will hire him.
The Chinese in San Francisco apparently emigrated in the late 1800s. However, take a stroll in Chinatown and it seems that nearly everyone living there is foreign born. Other immigrant areas of the early 20th Century (Little Italy, Irish neighborhoods, etc) have all but disappeared as the inhabitants assimilated and moved on to the suburbs. But, in Chinatown, the area persists due to an unending flow of illegals.
Clintons’ fault!
So many in our government are just bought and paid for low lifes. The article provided an example of how our gov’t looks out for the American citizen, requiring Agriprocessors to offer a whole $6.50 per hour in their newspaper ads before they bring in foreigners to work for that or even as little as $5.00 per hour.
Our immigration system has to be one of the sleaziest, most dishonest and corrupt bureaucratic piles of crap anywhere in the Western nations. And all three presidential candidates remaining intend to reward 15 - 20 million illegals with citizenship, and certainly they’ll do nothing to crack down on this sort of corruption.
I have heard horrible stories about the way that pathetic animals are “kosher” slaughtered. People who hurt animals are evil.
Agreed. If work visas are choked down to size, Americans will fill those jobs. The wages may rise, and the cost of whatever they produce, also, but Americans will be doing the jobs.
Biggest Immigration Raid Ever, can’t be that big of deal, a search on Los Angeles Times returns no results. Why is that?
No wonder the owner of the plant was upset his scheme was upset. I wonder how big of a cut of that 30,000 per worker for hundreds of workers he received.
Why that’s interesting.
There was a thread the other day about this very same company.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2016569/posts
“The charges were among the most explosive details to emerge following the massive raid Monday at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa.”
“In a 60-page application for a search warrant, federal agents revealed details of their six-month probe of Agriprocessors. The investigation involved 12 federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the departments of labor and agriculture. “
US$30,000?!
How about the US auction off a small number of immigrant spots to the highest bidder? I’m sure the proceeds will pay for any background and health requirements.
Michelle Obama is just newly proud of this country and these folks are paying 10 years wages just to get in.
I have always said that I would rather pay double the price and know that I was employing a fellow U.S. Citizen. That’s the way I look at it and I always will.
I’m with you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.