Today marks the one year anniversary of the ICE raid at the Agriprocessors meat packing facility in Postville, Iowa. The raid, which was the largest worksite enforcement raid in U.S. history, resulted in the conviction and deportation of more than 300 undocumented immigrants, mostly uneducated Guatemalan farmers.
To the government, Postville was a cold clinical experiment. For the first time it sought to criminalize immigrants on a mass scale. In Postville, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa, using the federal identity theft statute as a hammer, forged serious crimes out of mere civil immigration violations. No longer would it be enough to simply arrest and deport undocumented immigrants. They had to send them home as felons.
But the government failed to gauge the public’s reaction. In the year since the Postville prosecutions serious legal and ethical questions have been raised about the tactics the U.S Attorney’s Office used to coerce the expedited convictions. Hearings were held in Congress and the new administration has stated that while it will not hesitate to arrest and deport undocumented workers, its priority will be to prosecute employers who break the law. And just last week, in a unanimous decision, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that the government has overreached in its use of the federal identity theft statute against undocumented workers, raising troubling questions about the fairness of the Postville convictions.
Surely, in the months to come, as President Obama makes good on his promise to reform our dysfunctional immigration system, advocates, legal scholars, and politicians will continue to try and make sense of what happened at Postville. If there is any good to come of this ugly experience, perhaps it is that Postville may mark a turning point in the struggle for comprehensive immigration reform—a moment when the abuses inherent in an “enforcement only” immigration policy became clear.
But one thing is for sure. Nothing will change the fact that the Postville operation separated mothers from their children and husbands from their wives. It destroyed countless families and ruined a community. Today, as I think about the lessons of Postville, I am moved by the simple plea of Pedro Arturo Lopez Vega, an eighth grader in Postville, to President and Ms. Obama. Pedro’s mother was convicted and deported after the raid:
The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
My name is Pedro Arturo Lopez Vega, I am the son of Consuelo Vega Nava, one of the workers that were caught in the May 12, 2008 Postville Raid at Agriprocessors, Inc. She was sentenced to five months in jail and then deported to Mexico on October 25th, 2008. She did not talk about me and my little sister because she was afraid that they would send us to jail with her. I don’t want anybody to suffer the way I did because it is very painful when they take away the one person you can always trust and count on.
The raid has affected me and my family in many ways. My nine year old sister Samantha would go into her room and “talk” to my mom while she was actually not there. My nephew who was eight months at the time, would always crawl to the front door and wait for my mom and after she would not show up, he would start to cry. As for me, instead of my mom waking me up, giving me a kiss, and sending me to school, my older sister Juanita has to do it. When I come back from school I don’t receive the warm hug that my mom used to give me and when I go to sleep I miss her goodnight kiss and her blessing for the night.
When we had mock elections in school I voted for you because I knew you were the change that this country and immigration population needs.
In school I read about a soldier in the Civil War who had to stand guard two nights in a row. On the second night he fell asleep and was sentenced to death for not doing his duty. Abraham Lincoln pardoned him and when the soldier offered to pay him with his savings Abraham Lincoln refused and told him to just do his duty.
Mr. President, I want to ask you to be like Abraham Lincoln and pardon my mother for three days so she can come to Postville on May 29, 2009 and see my graduation from 8th grade and allow me to show her that I kept my promise.
I cannot repay you with money but I assure you that I will always do my best and help people in need.
Respectfully yours,
Pedro Arturo Lopez Vega
332 North Reynolds Street
Postville, Iowa 52162
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Mrs. Michelle Obama
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mrs. Obama,
My name is Pedro Arturo Lopez Vega, I am the son of Consuelo Vega Nava, one of the workers that were caught in the May 12, 2008 Postville Raid at Agriprocessors, Inc. She was sentenced to five months in jail and then deported to Mexico on October 25th, 2008. She did not talk about me and my little sister because she was afraid that they would send us to jail with her. I don’t want anybody to suffer the way I did because it is very painful when they take away the one person you can always trust and count on.
It has been almost a year since I last saw my mom. I know that as a mother, you can imagine how my mother must have felt spending days and nights without knowing anything about her children or her husband.
The raid has affected me and my family in many ways. My nine year old sister Samantha would go into her room and “talk” to my mom while she was actually not there. My nephew who was eight months at the time, would always crawl to the front door and wait for my mom and after she would not show up, he would start to cry. As for me, instead of my mom waking me up, giving me a kiss, and sending me to school, my older sister Juanita has to do it. When I come back from school I don’t receive the warm hug that my mom used to give me and when I go to sleep I miss her goodnight kiss and her blessing for the night.
I don’t wake up with the same desire to go to school as I used to but I get up, go to school, and do my homework because I promised my mom that I would get an education and try to be successful in life.
I would very much appreciate it if you could ask your husband to give my mother a three day visa, so she can come to Postville and see my graduation from 8th grade on May 29, 2009 and allow me to show her that I kept my promise.
Respectfully yours,
Pedro Arturo Lopez Vega
332 North Reynolds Street
Postville, Iowa 52162