I spent 12 days helping in Postville with the horrendous aftermath of
the May 12 raid at Agriprocessors, Inc. Of the 389 arrested, most of
the minors were released because they had family to return to in
Postville. Those who did not were taken into protective services.
One of the things that I helped with was initial intakes for the lawyers with some of the minors. Because of confidentiality requirements, I cannot tell you specifics of any particular case. However, in other encounters with some of these minors, I saw evidence of several injuries they received while working at the plant: burns from the steam of hot water used for knives, scars from hooks, missing fingers because of knife accidents.
From many others I learned that almost everyone, including minors, worked 10-12 hours a day with two breaks of maybe 15 minutes and maybe 20-30 minutes for a food break. Those were the only times they were allowed to use the restrooms.
Most of the people I talked to, including minors, had walked most of the way from the border of Guatemala to the U.S. border, sometimes riding on a bus, with only one meal a day. One lad walked from Laredo to San Antonio to get a bus to Postville.
Why do they endure such conditions? Because of extreme poverty in their country, the desire to help their families, the desire to better themselves and to have a better life for their children. Many helped support family members still in Guatemala or Mexico.
One woman that I helped would not have gotten her rent deposit back from the realtor except that I was there and he did not want bad publicity. She told me when we got outside that she was sending it to her four children in Guatemala so they could have food.
Of those arrested, 40 women and three men were released to care for
their minor children. They are wearing GPS ankle bracelets (to monitor
their whereabouts). They have no means of support except what the
church (St. Bridget’s in Postville) is doing for them. They are
receiving court dates for October through December and can do nothing
about providing for their families.
I helped for four afternoons with the process for receiving financial aid. This money has been donated for those affected by the raid. It has come from all over the country. How long the money will continue to come in, especially in light of the need for help for flood victims, is certainly in question.
Help is given for rent, although St. Bridget’s has gotten many of the landlords to lower the amount somewhat, for electric, and/or gas, water and phone. Food is being provided through the local food pantry (also affected by the flood in Waterloo where the food bank is located) — but that is being stretched to the limit. The week after I left they were expecting a semi-trailer of donated food from a Jewish community in Ohio. One might say the phone is a luxury, but the people need some means for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) representatives to keep in contact with them. This leads to another problem.
For those who have someone in federal custody, the only way to communicate with them is through a phone system whereby the detainee calls collect and the first minute is $4 and 25 cents a minute after that.
Especially in the first weeks after the raid, this resulted in large
phone bills. A cultural factor is also in play with those detained. In
Guatemala, most of these people lived through years when a family
member was taken away by the authorities and disappeared — the
“desaparacidos” — never to be seen again. So when they cannot find out
where detained family members are being held, that adds to their
terror.
At least two people are working every day to find out where the
detained are. We have a list that is only fairly accurate because the
flood caused three jails to be evacuated. Added to that, federal
prisoners are being moved to other facilities, some to federal prisons
— in Leavenworth, Kan., and Monroe, La., for example — or to county
jails out of state.
Several people are working to obtain travel documents for those still
in Postville, particularly with those who have GPS bracelets and those
who have a family member detained. Once those with bracelets have a
court date, they probably will be deported. Once those who are detained
have served their five-month sentences, they will be deported and their
families in Postville will return with them. Many have children who
were born in the United States and need a U.S. passport to travel with
their parents out of the country.
Those who are Mexican need an “apostille,” which is a special seal demanded by Mexico for those born in the U.S. to enter school in Mexico or to receive services from the Mexican government, particularly medical care. The process is long, costly and involves a lot of paperwork. Some fees may be waived, but I am not certain of that.
One night, an Iowa, Chicago & Eastern train went through Postville with the letters IC&E on the railroad cars. The people thought that ICE was coming for them. The very high level of fear, the uncertainty of where detained loved ones are and the lack of any means to sustain them all add to the trauma.
And what did this raid accomplish? Devastation among about 1,000 people, which will affect the rest of the town as well, great cost to the U.S. government, and the loss of students in the school system, thus fewer teachers will be needed. The raid did nothing for comprehensive immigration reform.
There were many abuses rampant in this plant, but the Department of
Labor was, and I hope still is, investigating this. These abuses need
to cease; that is true, but the raid did not accomplish that either.
The staff at St. Bridget’s and many volunteers are giving those
affected by this raid much moral, emotional and practical support.
Region gets its own foreign secretariat
Guwahati, June 15: Move over Delhi. For the Northeast, foreign policy just became a next door affair.
A branch secretariat of the external affairs ministry, inaugurated in the Assam capital today, will give the seven northeastern states easier access and hence more say when the Centre forms its policies regarding Southeast Asian countries, which surround the region.
This operatively means that the ministers and mandarins from the Northeast will no longer have to run to Delhi every time they want a policy regarding a neighbouring country discussed or implemented.
They will simply have to drop in at the secretariat in Guwahati and get filled in about the latest in foreign policies.
The secretariat, in turn, will regularly provide inputs to the state governments of the region on issues concerning promotion of overseas trade and investments and would undertake activities aimed at promoting an understanding of India’s foreign policy.
The secretariat will facilitate the North Eastern Council (NEC) for “liaison and interaction” with the external affairs ministry so that the region’s requirement and aspirations get reflected in India’s bilateral relation with the neighbouring countries.
DoNER minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said the NEC in its meeting in May this year emphasised the need to set up of the secretariat in the region.
Attributing the backwardness of the region to the foreign policies in the past that isolated it from rest of the world, Aiyar said the secretariat in Guwahati, has made the Look East Policy relevant for the Northeast.
The new secretariat will also offer attestation of personal and commercial document for use abroad under the Apostille Convention. Once attested here, the documents will no longer need further attestation by the Embassy of that country in Delhi.
Outside Delhi, this facility is not available in anywhere in the country, though the external affairs ministry has proposed to soon introduce a similar facility in its branch secretariats in Calcutta, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Inaugurating the secretariat external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee stressed the need for “fruitful and mutually” beneficial linkages with neighbouring countries for any development strategy of the landlocked region, which shares its border with a number of countries.
To transform the region from landlocked to being land-linked, there have diplomatic initiatives to open two transport routes. One is the Birgunj-Kaatihar-Singhabad-Rohanpur-Chittagong route with links to Jogbani, Biratnagar and the other Agartala-Akhaura-Chittagong.
The external affairs minister said for a rail link between Akhaura-Agartala, survey within the Indian territory has been completed. Mukherjee said India has also circulated a draft regional railway agreement for consideration of Saarc members
Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, who was also present on the inaugural function, had earlier mooted that the Jiribam-Tupul railway line in Manipur should be stretched upto Moreh and then gradually extended into a trans-Asean railway network.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi also highlighted the need for foreign policy initiative for the economic progress of the region.
BUREAUCRACY has been blamed for the declining number of tourists travelling to Fiji to get married.
In 2004, 20 per cent of visitors travelled to Fiji to get married but the number has declined since then.
Fiji Visitors Bureau chairman Patrick Wong expressed concern at the declining figures at the National Tourism Council meeting held at the Shangri-La's Fijian Resort in Sigatoka yesterday.
Mr Wong said the wedding segment at hotels and resorts in Fiji was the fastest growing industry but it was on the declining side because of the red tape associated with obtaining a marriage certificate.
He said statistics provided by the Registrar General's office showed in 2004 there were close to 3000 registered tourist weddings but this number started to decline and last year there were just close to 1000 registered tourist weddings.
"The Pacific, especially Fiji has lovely locations where tourists want to come and get married. These include our beaches and various locations provided by various hotels," said Mr Wong.
He said when tourists came to Fiji to get married, they were required to get a special seal on their marriage certificate to have it recognised in their country.
"There is only one such seal called the Apostille seal which only the permanent secretary for Foreign Affairs is authorised to use."
Mr Wong said their main concern was that when tourist couples got married in the West, they had to send their marriage certificate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Suva to have it stamped with the Apostille seal but if the permanent secretary was out of the country, the couple would have to wait.
A survey stated that couple resorted to getting married at home and coming to Fiji for a honeymoon.