Immigration Travesty in Iowa

This NY Times op-ed piece pointed me to an essay by Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas, Ph.D. who writes about the aftermath of the giant immigration raid in Postville, Iowa. Reading such a heart-rending essay made me think about social justice and religion, naturally. There are some bright spots during the dark time of the raids, like how many of the immigrants turned to the local Catholic church for comfort, protection, and aid. But overall, the essay is a sad one

Dr. Camayd-Freixas tells about how this raid is not just a simple matter of illegal immigrants being arrested and sent home. Instead, of the nearly 400 Guatemalan and Mexican immigrants arrested, around 260 were charged with identity theft and Social Security fraud for using fake Social Security numbers to get work. Once again, even this aspect wasn't simple. According to Camayd-Freixas, most of these people truly are innocent of these charges because they don't know what Social Security is or how it works, simply knowing that the nine digit number was required to work. Virtually no identity theft occurred either because most of the immigrants didn't even fill out the paperwork to get hired, letting someone at work do it for them.

So we have a group of immigrants who were convinced to waive their rights because they thought it would get them deported faster (which is the ultimate result no matter which of the three possible plea bargains the people face), only to be charged with serious, complicated charges. And immigration lawyers were banned from the proceedings because these charges were not immigration-related.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that many of these Guatemalan immigrants could possibly be political refugees because of the gross human rights violations still occuring in that country (begun and sponsored by our own government's support of the Contras).

Obviously, social justice has taken a vacation in Postville.

Aside from the spuriousness of charging immigrants with trumped up charges after convincing them to waive their rights, what I find disturbing about this case is the after affects on, surprisingly, the non-immigrant population. Camayd-Freixas writes about how the entire town lost a large segment of the population all at once, traumatizing many citizens, especially the children who suddenly lost classmates and friends (by some counts, some classes at the elementary school lost up to a dozen students at once). Children were having nightmares that their parents were also taken away suddenly without explanation.

Stories like these show just how integrated we all are. What seems like a simple case of illegal immigration isn't so simple, with the reality being families separated, traumatized children, a town in trouble because the government has turned a blind eye to justice or common sense, or even the humanity we all share. In prosecuting people they will eventually deport instead of deporting them immediately, the government has reminded us of why Jesus reminded us to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" because the government is not necessarily with social justice.