Erik Camayd-Freixas, PhD, was a court interpreter for immigrants arrested at the biggest worksite immigration raid in U.S. history. Among the workers were illiterate Mayans (indigenous Guatemalans) and parents desperate for deportation to be reunited with children.

The workers were criminally charged with "aggravated identity theft" and "Social Security fraud" - "charges they did not understand. And, frankly, neither did I," Camayd-Freixas, a professor of modern languages at Florida International University, writes for New America Media [1].

The following is an excerpt of Camayd-Freixas' firsthand account of his interpretation/translation for Latino workers during the several days that followed their arrest at the Agrigprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, on May 12, 2008.

To read Camayd-Freixas' entire story - in which he describes his moral dilemma as an interpreter, the ethical and legal issues that surfaced, and the personal plights of detainees - please visit NewAmericaMedia.org [2].

Listen also to an interview with Camayd-Freixas and radio journalist Sandip Roy of NewAmerica Media, at NewAmericaMedia.org [3]. Excerpted quotes from the radio interview are also listed below (scroll all the way down).

 

 

POSTVILLE, Iowa - On Monday, May 12, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in an operation involving some 900 agents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed a raid of Agriprocessors, Inc., the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant located in the town of Postville, Iowa.

The raid - officials boasted - was "the largest single-site operation of its kind in American history." At that same hour, 26 federally certified interpreters from all over the country were en route to the small neighboring city of Waterloo, Iowa, having no idea what their mission was.

Raid preparations had begun in December. The Clerk's Office of the U.S. District Court had contracted the interpreters a month ahead, but was not at liberty to tell us the whole truth, lest the impending raid be compromised.

The operation was led by ICE, which belongs to the executive branch, whereas the U.S. District Court, belonging to the judicial branch, had to formulate its own official reason for participating.

I arrived late that Monday night and missed the 8 p.m. interpreters' briefing. I was instructed by phone to meet at 7 a.m. in the hotel lobby and carpool to the National Cattle Congress (NCC) where we would begin our work. We arrived at the heavily guarded compound, went through security, and gathered inside.

The Clerk of Court, who coordinated the interpreters, said, "Have you seen the news? There was an immigration raid yesterday at 10 a.m. They have some 400 detainees here. We'll be working late conducting initial appearances for the next few days."

The NCC is a 60-acre cattle fairground that had been transformed into a sort of concentration camp or detention center.

Later the NCC board complained to the local newspaper that they had been "misled" by the government when they leased the grounds purportedly for Homeland Security training.

Echoing what I think was the general feeling, one of my fellow interpreters would later exclaim, "When I saw what it was really about, my heart sank."

Then began the saddest procession I have ever witnessed, which the public would never see, because cameras were not allowed (only a few journalists came to court the following days, notepads in hand).

Shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment.

They appeared to be uniformly no more than five feet tall, mostly illiterate Guatemalan peasants with Mayan last names (Tajtaj, Xicay, Sajché, Sologüí). Some were in tears; others had faces of worry, fear and embarrassment. They all spoke Spanish, a few rather laboriously.

They too were Native Americans, in shackles.

They had all waived their right to be indicted by a grand jury and accepted instead an "information" or simple charging document by the U.S. Attorney, hoping to be quickly deported since they had families to support back home.

But it was not to be. They were criminally charged with "aggravated identity theft" and "Social Security fraud" - charges they did not understand. And, frankly, neither did I.

Of Agriprocessors' 968 current employees, about 75 percent were illegal immigrants. There were 697 arrest warrants, but late-shift workers had not arrived, so "only" 390 were arrested: 314 men and 76 women, 290 Guatemalans, 93 Mexicans, four Ukrainians, and three Israelis who were not seen in court.

In all, 306 were held for prosecution. Only five of the 390 originally arrested had any kind of prior criminal record. There remained 307 outstanding warrants.

American children were having nightmares that their parents too were being taken away.

At the local high school, only three of the 15 Latino students came back on Tuesday, while at the elementary and middle school, 120 of the 363 children were absent.

Some American parents complained that their children were traumatized by the sudden disappearance of so many of their school friends. The principal reported the same reaction in the classrooms, saying that for the children it was as if ten of their classmates had suddenly died.

American children were having nightmares that their parents too were being taken away. The superintendant said the school district's future was unclear: "This literally blew our town away."

In some cases both parents were picked up and small children were left behind for up to 72 hours. Typically, the mother would be released "on humanitarian grounds" with an ankle GPS monitor, pending prosecution and deportation, while the husband took the first turn in serving his prison sentence.

Nothing could have prepared me for the prospect of helping our government put hundreds of innocent people in jail.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Wednesday, May 14, our second day in court, was to be a long one. Throughout the day, the procession continued, hour after hour: the same charges, the same recitation from the magistrates, the same chains and shackles on the defendants.

There was little to remind us that they were actually 306 individuals, except that occasionally, one would dare to speak for the others and beg to be deported quickly so that they could feed their families back home.

Several men and women were weeping, but two women were particularly grief-stricken. One of them was sobbing and would repeatedly struggle to bring a sleeve to her nose, but her wrists shackled around her waist simply would not reach; so her nose just dripped until she was taken away with the rest.

The other one, a Ukrainian woman, was held and arraigned separately when a Russian telephonic interpreter came on. Her young daughter, gravely ill, had lost her hair and was too weak to walk. She had taken her to Moscow and Kiev but to no avail. She was told that her child needed an operation or would soon die. She had come to America to work and raise the money to save her daughter back in the Ukraine.

In every instance, detainees who cried did so for their children, never for themselves.

Each of the 18 court-appointed attorneys represented 17 defendants on average. By now, the clients had been sent to several prisons throughout eastern Iowa, so we had to interview them in jail.

While we waited to be admitted (to a state penitentiary), the attorney pointed out the reason why the prosecution wanted to finish arraignments by 10 a.m. on Thursday: According to the writ of habeas corpus, they (the prosecution) had 72 hours from Monday's raid to charge the prisoners or release them for deportation (only a handful would be so lucky).

The right of habeas corpus, but of course!

Some clients understood their "options" better than others.

[One] client, a Guatemalan peasant afraid for his family, spent most of [the] time weeping at our table, in a crowded jailhouse visiting room. How had he come here from Guatemala? "I walked." What? "I walked for a month and 10 days until I crossed the river."

We understood immediately how desperate his family's situation was. He crossed alone, hitched a truck ride to Dallas, then Postville, where he heard there was sure work. He slept in an apartment hallway with other immigrants until he got a job. He had scarcely been working a couple of months when he was arrested.

Maybe he was lucky: Another man who had begun that Monday had only been working for 20 minutes. "I just wanted to work a year or two, save, and then go back to my family, but it was not to be."

His case and that of a million others could simply be solved by a temporary work permit as part of our much overdue immigration reform. "The good Lord knows I was just working and not doing anyone any harm."

This man, like many others, was in fact not guilty. "Knowingly" and "intent" are necessary elements of the charges, but most of the clients we interviewed did not even know what a Social Security number was or what purpose it served.

This worker simply had the papers filled out for him at the plant, since he could not read or write Spanish, let alone English. But the lawyer still had to advise him that pleading guilty was in his best interest. He was unable to make a decision.

None of the "options" really mattered to him. Caught between despair and hopelessness, he just wept. He had failed his family, and was devastated.

There was my conflict of interest, well-put by a weeping, illiterate man.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We had to come back to a full day on Sunday to interview the rest of the clients.

Many of the Guatemalans had the same predicament. One of them, a 19-year-old, worried that his parents were too old to work, and that he was the only support for his family back home.

We will never know how many of the 293 Guatemalans had legitimate asylum claims for fear of persecution, back in a country stigmatized by the worst human rights situation in the hemisphere, a by-product of the U.S.-backed Contra wars of 1980s Central America.

Even as we proceeded during those two weeks in May, news coming out of Guatemala reported farm workers being assassinated for complaining publicly about their working conditions.

Not only had we ignored the many root causes of illegal immigration, we also would never know which of these deportations would turn out to be a death sentence.

Criminal attorneys are not familiar with immigration work, but had to make do since immigration lawyers were denied access to these criminal proceedings.

Another client, a young Mexican, had an altogether different case. He had worked at the plant for 10 years and had two American-born daughters. He had a good case with immigration for an adjustment of status that would allow him to stay.

His case was complicated; it needed research in immigration law, a change in the plea agreement, and, above all, more time.

Even the criminal defense attorneys had limited opportunity to meet with clients. There was little time before and after hearings, and little privacy due to the constant presence of agents.

There were 17 cases for each attorney, and the plea offer was only good for seven days.

In addition, the prosecutors would not accept any changes to the plea agreement.

In fact, some lawyers, seeing that many of their clients were not guilty, requested an Alford plea, whereby defendants can plead guilty in order to accept the prosecution's offer, but without having to lie under oath and admit to something they did not do.

That would not change the five-month sentence, but at least it preserved the person's integrity and dignity.

At this point, it is worth remembering that even real criminals have an 8th Amendment right to reasonable bail - but not illegal workers, because their immigration detainer makes bail a moot issue.

We had already circumvented habeas corpus by doubling the court's business hours. What about the 6th Amendment right to a "speedy trial"?

In many states "speedy" means 90 days, but in federal law it is vaguely defined. This served as another loophole to force a guilty plea.

"If you want to see your children or don't want your family to starve, sign here." That is what their deal amounted to. Their plea agreement was coerced.

source: NewAmericaMedia.org [4]

Copyright 2008 New England Ethnic News, EthnicNEWz.org. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express permission of the source. Contact Newz for more information.

 

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Excerpted quotes from interpreter Erik Camayd-Freixas' radio interview with Sandip Roy of New America Media [5]:

"We [interpreters, when we were first hired by the U.S. District Court] were led to understand that it [the Agriprocessors raid] was going to be an exercise for continued operations in case of emergency [such as a flood]."

 

"It was very striking, first of all, to see [the detainees] shackled - their feet, their waists and their wrists, dragging the chain as they walked."

 

"There were 293 Guatemalans out of 389 arrestees. Of the 293 Guatemalans, many of them were indigenous."

 

"In general, [the interviewed detainees] thought that they were being prosecuted because 'I'm illegal in this country' [even after] the attorney would say: 'That's not why you're here.'"

 

"I have been a a federal interpreter since 1995, and I have never spoken about or written about any case [for which I interpreted] before. But never had I encountered a situation like this [raid in Postville, Iowa]."

 

"They [the detainees] were certainly in the country illegally, and...they deserved to be deported, but not to be incarcerated, not to be put in chains and basically have their families suffer hardship."

 

"They [the detainees] were not angry....They simply could not understand why they were not just being deported, but...were instead...put in jail."

Listen to the full interview at NewAmericaMedia.org [6].

 

source: NewAmericaMedia.org [7]

Copyright 2008 New England Ethnic News, EthnicNEWz.org. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express permission of the source. Contact Newz for more information.