Last week, we learned about “Operation Wagon Train,” the single-largest worksite-enforcement operation in the history of the United States, in which nearly 1,300 immigrants were taken into custody in a series of raids on meatpacking plants in six states. It wasn’t pretty — about 1,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, some in riot gear, the crackdown.
In one of the crackdowns, federal agents identified suspects based on skin color, and ended up apprehending U.S. citizens who had done nothing wrong. In other instances, parents wrapped up in the raids were separated from their children, even infants.
In explaining the need for this massive operation, the Department of Homeland Security said it was necessary to arrest people involved in identity theft. Even at the time, it was a dubious claim, since only 5% of those arrested were charged with identity-theft related crimes. Today, Justin Rood added that “if the Feds were trying to protect citizens from identity thieves, they failed.”
Unfortunately, while the Department of Homeland Security held a press conference immediately after the raids to announce nationwide totals for arrests, they have been less chatty about the number of detainees charged with criminal violations, and the Department of Justice has announced indictments in each state as they are handed down from grand juries.
As a result, the picture is incomplete: We know that 1,282 workers were detained in the raids ten days ago. Over 100 were charged with a variety of crimes. So far, grand juries have handed down indictments for 58 of them: 20 from Worthington, Minn.; 15 from Grand Island, Neb.; and 23 from Marshalltown, Iowa, according to reports in local papers. I have not seen indictments reported from the raids in Cactus, Texas, or Greeley, Colo.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has not released a tally of the number of innocent legal workers its agents detained in the raids but later released, nor details on how long they were held before being let go. ICE also has not given a total number of detainees who have been summarily deported.
The purpose of these raids is still elusive — and a growing number of Dems are asking the right questions.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is on the case.
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa wrote Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff on Tuesday to say he is appalled by the process used to detain and deport workers in raids earlier this month at six Swift & Co. packing plants, including one in Marshalltown.
Harkin, a Democrat, said a telephone hot line for information for family members set up by the government has gone unanswered at times. It “provided no information of any use” at other times, Harkin said in the letter.
It has been “almost impossible” for lawyers and members of the clergy to gain access to workers who were detained, and workers were taken to other states without being granted access to lawyers, Harkin said.
So is outgoing Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D).
Governor and Presidential hopeful Tom Vilsack is moving aggressively to grab the high-profile meat-packing plant immigration raids as a signature issue, the Des Moines Register reports today. The paper says Vilsack fired off a letter to President Bush demanding info about loved ones arrested in the raid. “To this day, the whereabouts of some of these people are still unknown,” Vilsack wrote. “Considering the hardship this has on their families, silence as to their condition is not acceptable.”
The president, meanwhile, briefly mentioned “Operation Wagon Train” during his press conference yesterday, but got the facts wrong.
President Bush teed off on immigration reform in today’s press conference. But while his point may be admirable — the country needs comprehensive immigration reform — his portrayal of the facts wasn’t. Here’s how he described the results of last week’s unprecedented raids on meatpacking plants:
“I don’t know if you’ve paid attention to the enforcement measures that were taken recently at some meat-packing plants. They found people that had been working illegally, but all of them had documents that said they were here legally — they were using forged documents.”
Actually, only 65 of the nearly 1,300 detainees faced criminal charges, and only some of those involved document fraud.
Regardless, just in time for Christmas, families have been divided, communities have been torn apart, factories have come to a halt, and no one can explain exactly why this happened.