Did Jewish Owners Get Soft Treatment from ICE?
by Ian Mosley
Remember that big kosher meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa, run by Hasidic Jews from New York. The one that was busted a couple of months ago for working hundreds of illegal aliens. Well, guess who gets to take the fall? Will it be the Jewish owners or some low-level Gentile scapegoats?
The New York Times reports: “Two supervisors at a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa where hundreds of illegal immigrants were rounded up in May were arrested Thursday on criminal immigration charges. Federal prosecutors said they had also issued an arrest warrant for a third man described by workers as a plant manager… The supervisors, Juan Carlos Guerrero Espinoza and Martin De la Rosa Loera, were arrested at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, prosecutors said. They were the first employees who were not rank-and-file workers to be arrested since 389 illegal immigrants were rounded up at the plant on May 12, said Bob Teig, a spokesman for the United States attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. Federal authorities called the raid the largest enforcement operation by immigration authorities at a single workplace. Unions and immigrant advocacy groups had criticized immigration officials for focusing arrests on workers while taking no action against top managers.”
The top managers were Hasidic Jews from New York. Hmmm…could there possibly be a connection between that fact and their immunity from prosecution?
Back to the Times: “The arrest warrant was issued for Hosam Amara, 43. In interviews after the raid, several workers said Mr. Amara was a floor manager with more authority than line supervisors. They said he was a link between workers on the slaughterhouse floors and meatpacking lines and more senior management. Agriprocessors, which before the raid was the country’s largest producer of kosher meat, is owned by Aaron Rubashkin. Two weeks after the raid, he removed his son Sholom as chief executive.”
This is interesting. You don’t suppose someone secretly tipped off Mr. Rubashkin and then he hired a (probably Ethiopian) Hosam Amara to be the top guy at the plant on the day of the raid. Could people be capable of such underhanded scheming?
The Times article continues “Most of the illegal immigrants arrested at the plant were from rural Guatemala. In expedited proceedings, 270 workers were sent to federal prison on criminal charges, most for presenting false documents when they were hired. In a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday, federal authorities said Mr. Guerrero was the supervisor of four departments in the Postville plant, including a slaughterhouse called Beef Kill. Workers cited anonymously in the complaint said Mr. Guerrero was running a business obtaining fraudulent immigration documents, known as green cards… In the days before the raid, the workers said, according to the complaint, Mr. Guerrero told them in a meeting that they needed new IDs and Social Security numbers to continue working at the company. Mr. Guerrero collected $200 and a photograph from each worker, promising to provide new documents, the complaint says.”
It sounds like they were trying to cover their tracks with phony documents, but the raid caught them just before fake documents could be produced. One wonders if ICE would have meekly accepted those documents from workers, who probably spoke little-to-no English.
One final interesting note from the Times: “On Thursday in Houston, five senior managers of another company that was recently raided, Action Rags USA, made their initial court appearances. Those arrested on Wednesday included Mabarik Kahlon, 45, the owner of the company, an exporter of used clothing, and his partner Rasheed Ahmed, 58. About 160 workers were arrested on June 25 at the company’s plant in Houston.”
Funny how they arrested senior managers (with Muslim names) at this other company, but apparently only Gentile scapegoats were arrested at the Jewish-owned company.