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U.S. | Immigrant Rights | Labor & Workers | Police State and PrisonsCourt Interpreter for Workers Rounded Up In Largest Immigration Raid in U.S. History Breaks Confidentiality Code to Speak Out
Monday, July 14, 2008 :On May 12th, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 400 workers at a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa in the largest immigration raid in U.S. history. Many were sent to prison. We speak with Erik Camayd-Freixas, a professor and Spanish-language court interpreter who was flown into Iowa for the trial. He broke the code of confidentiality among legal interpreters to describe the workers predicament in what he calls, "The saddest procession I have ever witnessed." He says most of the workers were peasants from Guatemala and did not fully understand the criminal charges they were facing. He also says that court-appointed lawyers had little time to meet with the workers, many of whom ended up waiving their rights. Postville, Iowa is a small town of just over 2,000 people. On May 12th the town became the site of the largest immigration raid in US history. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE arrested 389 workers at Agriprocessors, the largest kosher slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant in the country.
Nearly 300 of the workers were charged with aggravated identity theft and Social Security fraud and many were sent to prison. Erik Camayd is a professor of modern languages at Florida International University in Miami. He was one of the 26 court-appointed interpreters flown into Iowa for the trial. In an account download pdf] describing his experience, he wrote: “Then began the saddest procession I have ever witnessed, which the public would never see, because cameras were not allowed past the perimeter of the compound. Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of 10. They appeared to be uniformly no more than 5 ft. tall, mostly illiterate Guatemalan peasants with Mayan last names, some in tears; others with faces of worry, fear, and embarrassment." Professor Erik Camayd joins me now from Miami, Florida. Erik Camayd-Freixas, professor of modern languages at Florida International University in Miami. He was a court-appointed interpreter at the trial of the nearly 400 workers arrested in an immigration raid in Postville, Iowa in May. He has written a scathing account of the trial. Its called “Interpreting after the largest ICE raid in US history; A Personal Account.” Related LinksLISTEN ONLINE
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