Agriprocessors Fined For Workplace Violations

Remember the largest immigration raid that occurred in Iowa back in May (which was trumped three months later by the even larger raid in Mississippi in August)? At the time I asked if we had arrested the right criminals, since the focus of these raids seemed to be solely on the undocumented workers while no attention was paid to the employers that illegally hired them. Well it looks like the employers are finally being brought to task.

The New York Times is reporting that Agriprocessors, Inc., the kosher meatpacking plant that was raided in Postville, has been fined $10 million for wage violations. But get this: The fines have nothing to do with employing undocumented workers. About $9.6 million of the fines were for illegal paycheck donations that the company made to cover the cost of employees' uniforms--a deduction that cannot legally be made. The remaining amount of the fines were for illegally deducting "sales tax" from workers' paychecks and failing to provide back wages to workers arrested in the raid.

If you're starting to feel that justice hasn't been served, you'll be happy to know that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) news release tells us that a human resources employee who worked for the plant, has pleaded guilty to harboring illegal aliens and aggravated identity theft. She confessed to helping undocumented workers obtain false resident alien numbers so they could be hired at the plant.

In addition, the Iowa Independent is reporting that federal prosecutors have arrested Sholom Rubashkin, former chief executive officer and vice president at Agriprocessors and son of company founder Aaron Rubashkin, on immigration-related offenses. The complaint alleges that Rubashkin knowingly harbored illegal immigrants at his plant and assisted workers to help them obtain fraudulent green cards. Rubashkin and his father have also been indicted in the recent child labor case brought against Agriprocessors, after state labor investigators identified 57 under-age workers who were employed at the plant.

As satisfied as I am to see that both illegal worker and illegal employer are starting to bear equal responsibility, I remain unconvinced of the effectiveness of these large-scale immigration raids. Tearing families apart and decimating towns by shutting down its largest employers is not a long-term solution, and the resources required to carry out and prosecute these cases is enormous. We need to reform our policies to deal with the underlying issues rather than applying expensive bandages.

Photo © Matthew Walleser