It began on Monday, although many saw it coming before.

Workers and immigration advocates in Iowa began girding for an immigration raid last week after learning that federal authorities had leased Waterloo’s Cattle Congress fairgrounds. Federal officials declined to explain their plans last week, but advocates worried the fairgrounds would be used as a detention center. That’s what happened in December 2006, when federal agents took people apprehended in a raid at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Marshalltown to the Camp Dodge military base in Johnston.

ICE raided the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the U.S., in their largest raid so far this year.

Federal agents swept into a kosher meat plant on Monday in Postville, Iowa, and arrested more than 300 workers.
The authorities said the workers were suspected of being in the United States illegally or of having participated in identity theft and the fraudulent use of Social Security numbers.
A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not say how many people had been rounded up beyond the initial 300 or whether the management and owners of the plant, AgriProcessors, would face criminal charges.
The plant has 800 to 900 people and is the country’s largest producer of meat that is glatt kosher, widely regarded as the highest standard of cleanliness.

ICE came in via a tip of a former employee inside the plant.

The affidavit said a former plant supervisor had told investigators that a methamphetamine laboratory had operated at the plant and that some employees had carried weapons to the plant. The former supervisor, the affidavit said, estimated that 80 percent of the employees were in the United States illegally.

So far no meth lab has been found or weapons and despite this being perjury, the ex-employee will likely face no charges.

That same source reported an incident of abuse against immigrant workers, incidents which have not been further investigated. Instead of helping abused immigrant workers, the government came to the rescue with detentions and likely deportations.

The source, who was lawfully employed at the plant, told authorities that a floor supervisor duct-taped the eyes of an illegal Guatemalan employee and struck him with a meat hook. The blow caused no serious injuries.

“Source 7″ asked the Guatemalan to report the incident, but the employee said doing so could jeopardize his job.

So let’s recap, yes? ICE leases cattle grounds to keep the human cattle of undocumented workers who are being abused before they are processed and deported.

Via / The Sanctuary,