Miscellaneous

Interpreter on ICE

By Anne Skove, Esq.

You may not be able to locate Postville, Iowa, on a map without the help of the Internet. But many immigrants called Postville home.

Recall that Postville was the site of a massive roundup of undocumented people. Last May, over 400 workers at the nation's largest kosher meat packing plant were rounded up by federal agents.

Those involved are speaking up. One, a Catholic priest who came out of retirement after the raid, is quoted as saying "If the elected politicians couldn't do any better than this [raid] to come up with a good, just immigration law, they should hang their heads in shame [...] This is no way as a democracy to treat people. I don't care if they are legal or illegal. You don't tear families apart like this."

A former council member commented, "They turned people into cattle."

Strong words, but more incredible is a court interpreter from the case. Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas, who has worked as a certified federal court interpreter (the cream of the crop) for over 20 years, is speaking out. The combination of harsh felony charges and questionable guilty pleas pushed Camayd-Freixas to the edge.

Some of his findings (paraphrased from Dr. Camayd-Freixas's statement cited below):

• Initial appearances, pleas, and sentencing hearings were presided over by different magistrates and judges. Interpreters were the only officers of the court present at every step of the process, including jail interviews.


• Detainees were kept in facilities not certified by the DOJ or Bureau of Prisons.


• The average client-attorney ratio was 17:1.


• Defendants did not appear to understand their rights, and particularly did not appear to fathom waiver of indictment by a grand jury. Many concluded that they were jailed because they were present in the U.S. illegally, not for particular charges (such as they were).


• Bail was automatically denied.


• A uniform plea agreement was offered.


• Alford pleas were rejected.


• Most did not understand what a Social Security Number was, thus negating the intent element of the charges.


• Aggravated identity theft was used to obtain plea agreements, although the prosecution lacked probable cause for the charge.


• Judges had no discretion, as the plea agreements presented were binding.


• Many ethnic Mayans in the group were not fluent in Spanish.


• Cameras were not permitted in the compound were detainees were being kept.

Not everybody has the luxury of speaking their mind. Others see outspokenness as a personality trait to be subdued via performance reviews, mentoring, and training programs. Those who work in the court system have an ethical duty to promote public trust and confidence in their institution. Without such trust, the legal world falls apart. It's one thing for a priest to speak truth to power, quite another for an officer of the court to point out what went wrong.

Epilogue: Hundreds of detainees spent five months in federal prison before being deported earlier this month. Crime in Postville is on the rise. Immigrants from various other countries and citizens from elsewhere in the U.S. have moved in to take the jobs. The new mix of people is causing conflict. A federal judge has refused to recuse herself from a follow-up case. Rabbis have issued a resolution regarding ethical standards required of kosher meat packing plants.

See Statement of Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas, Federally Certified Interpreter at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa Regarding a Hearing on "The Arrest, Prosecution, and Conviction of 297 Undocumented Workers in Postville, Iowa, from May 12 to 22, 2008," before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law, (July 24, 2008, at 11:00 a.m.), and Priest: Nobody Can Tell Me to Shut Up, Wayne Drash, CNN (October 15, 2008).

What "makes Mayberry Mayberry?" See People of Postville See a Complicated Picture, Mike Klein, Des Moines Register (October 26, 2008).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).