The aftermath of the immigration raid in Postville, Iowa, continues to keep immigrant workers rights in the national spotlight.

Developments and headlines from this week:

Last weekend, the American Civil Liberties Union raised questions about documents the organization obtained that contained scripts for judges and defense lawyers to use during criminal hearings for the hundreds of workers who were arrested at the Agriprocessors, Inc., meatpacking plant.

The documents provided by the ACLU include a step-by-step script for hearings, with suggested wording by judges, lawyers and the immigrants charged. The packets include waivers -- printed in English and Spanish -- that bar workers from pursuing further legal claims or procedures. Others waive the legal right to a grand jury to determine criminal charges.

 

One waiver read, "I have been advised that I have the right to insist that any felony charge brought against me in federal court first be presented to a US Grand Jury ... I would like to waive that right, and agree to be prosecuted under information filed against me in this case by the United States Attorney."

The chief magistrate for the Northern District of Iowa, where the hearings were held, later contended that such scripts were routinely used in criminal hearings.

On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Iowa labor investigators had identified 57 underage workers - some as young as 13 - who were employed at Agriprocessors at the time of the raid in May. According to the newspaper, "investigators had found multiple child labor law violations for each under-age worker at the plant. They included employing minors in prohibited occupations, exposing them to hazardous chemicals, and making them work with prohibited tools like knives and saws." It is reported to be the largest child labor case ever in Iowa, where youth under age 18 are prohibited from working on the dangerous meatpacking floors. Agriprocessors could face fines of $500,000 to $1 million if it is convicted of criminal child labor violations. The decision of whether to bring charges against the company is now in the hands of Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, while a separate federal investigation continues.

Some of the 24 underage workers who were arrested during the immigration raid, presumably feeling they have nothing left to lose at this point, told the Associated Press about some of the abuses they suffered as Agriprocessors employees:

Luisa Lopez says no one asked about her age when she started working at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant.

She was 17, and within days she was on a fast-moving poultry production line, wielding a long, sharp pair of scissors.

"They never told me how to use them," Lopez said in Spanish. "Things moved so fast and I was always worried I would cut myself."

Also speaking out this week were Congressmen Luis Gutierrez and Joe Baca, who penned a scathing op-ed for the Chicago Tribune titled "Mr. President, Stop Your Raids on Our Communities," based on their visit to Postville in July with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The editorial begins:

As members of Congress, we have traveled to remote corners of the world and had our eyes opened to some of the worst human suffering imaginable-abject poverty, meager wages, poor working conditions, paltry access to legal counsel and a jarring lack of fairness in the courts.

We never imagined that we would witness the same injustices in a small American town just a five-hour drive from Chicago.

The editorial goes on to address the failures of the U.S. immigration system that so far has failed to hold employers who hire and abuse undocumented workers.

There is no mistaking that these men and women are suffering at the hands of the U.S. government and our president. Our broken Immigration system has paved a way to the objectification of human beings at the expense of our labor laws, U.S. workers' safety and basic family values.

Instead of taking a stand against the outright victimization of workers-many of them minors, and all of them legally entitled to labor protections-the Bush administration decided that meatpackers posed a greater threat to our security than suspected terrorists or physically abusive employers.

In the end, members of Congress are the ones with the power to restore sanity to U.S. immigration law so that 17-year-old girls who have sacrificed their childhoods to help feed their families are not the ones being targeted by the U.S. government.

It is no wonder that so few people have turned themselves in to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation this week.