World Policies Hit Ben Harris Jewish Telegraphic Agency Washington Photo courtesy Zoe Leven Immigration raid on kosher plant slammed at congressional hearings. W "From the day I moved to Regent Street of West Bloomfield, it has felt like home. The staff is kind and they are experts at what they do." - Resident Bea Paul 248.683 .1010 Visitors welcome. Stop by for a tour today! REGENT li STREET 0I" WEST lk 0 0 M F 0 (V ASSISTED LIVING 4460 Orchard Lake Rd. West Bloomfield, MI 48323 Located next to Comerica Bank Created to care for our family, devoted to serving yours. 1405760 A26 July 31 2008 itnesses at recent congres- sional hearings described the federal immigration raid on the country's largest kosher plant as a travesty of justice, a national disgrace and an ambush. But comparing the government detention facilities where 300 illegal workers arrested in the May 12 raid were detained to concentration camps was too much for one of the officials involved. "Personally and professionally, I find that quite offensive,' said Marcy Forman, the director of the Office of Investigations at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the lead agency in the raid. Forman told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on July 24 that the arrested workers had food, beds and televisions, as well as access to competent legal counsel. "Most concen- tration camps that I've become aware of don't possess those items; she said. The hearing, convened by the chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee's immigration panel, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., shifted the focus from Agriprocessors, the kosher meat producer that has been under intense scrutiny since the raid at its packing plant in Postville, Iowa, to the conduct of various federal agencies. In a hearing room packed with onlookers, it was Forman and a senior Department of Justice official, Deborah Rhodes, in the dock as the government faced the first sustained examination of its policy of bringing criminal charges against illegal immigrants. In the past, the immigrants typically were held on administrative grounds and deported. According to Forman and Rhodes, a near-heroic feat of law enforcement was performed in Postville. The government arrested and processed more than 300 non-English-speaking illegal immi- grants in a matter of days, all while protecting their constitutional rights and making allowances for humanitar- ian concerns. U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren convened a hearing in Washington on July 24 to consider the government's role in the May 12 raid on the Agriprocessors plant. But a broad range of critics — from elected officials to legal experts to those with firsthand knowledge of the legal proceedings and the raid's aftermath — painted a much different picture. In their view, the government employed heavy-handed tactics, destroyed the economy and social fabric of a tiny town, and left a small Catholic church to care for hundreds of people robbed of their primary bread- winner. Critics blasted the government's so-called "fast tracking" of detainees, alleging that defendants were provided inadequate access to lawyers, some of whom were assigned to represent more than a dozen workers. Perhaps most significant, the govern- ment is accused of presenting detainees with a near-impossible choice. Most could either plead guilty to aggravated identity theft or Social Security fraud, which under the agreement offered by prosecutors would send them to jail for five months before they were deported, or refuse the plea and go to trial. With the latter option, the detainees could wait up to six months in jail without bail and face the possibility of a two-year mandatory sentence. Ultimately they still faced deportation, whether they were found guilty or not. "Needless to say, the scheme left little room for the fundamental protections offered by the Constitution" David Leopold, the national vice president of