Immigration Law

POSTVILLE CONGRESSMAN BLASTS DHS OVER CONTRADICTIONS

By Greg Siskind

Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), the Congressman who represents the district that includes Agriprocessors, the meat processing plant that was recently the target of the largest work site raid in US history, has released letters that show contradicting stories regarding the government's preparation and management of the raid.

The Des Moines Register explains

A letter from the U.S. Department of Labor to Rep. Bruce Braley says the agency was not notified in advance about a raid on an Iowa meat packing plant ? in direct contradiction to a separate letter to Braley from immigration authorities stating that they ?fully coordinated? with labor officials investigating the plant.

Braley, a Waterloo Democrat, released the two letters during a conference call with Iowa reporters today. He called for a ?full response? from the two agencies about what went on prior to and during the May 12 raid at Agriprocessors in Postville.

?I am concerned that the raid may have had an impact on the ability of the Department of Labor to conduct a thorough investigation of labor practices within Agriprocessors,? Braley said.

The Department of Labor letter, dated July 3 from Kristine Iverson, assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental affairs, says that ?the raid occurred without the prior knowledge or participation? of the Wage and Hours Division of the department.

On a completely separate note, the Des Moines Register used a very cool tech tool in its story. A new service at Docstoc.com allows for documents to be embedded in blogs like videos (YouTube) and Powerpoints (Slideshare). Here are the letters Braley referred to in the story using Docstoc.

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on July 20, 2008 (boomark / email).