Legal News

Does ?Jewish Heritage? Make Someone a Flight Risk? The Feds Say Yes

By Dan Slater

Aficionados of “The Godfather” trilogy may remember the travails of Hyman Roth, played by the iconic acting teacher Lee Strasberg (pictured). In Part II, Roth, who falls out of favor with Michael Corleone, flees to Israel. But the High Court of Israel turns down his request to live as a ‘returned Jew.’ And, upon Roth’s return to the U.S., Corleone’s men assassinate him in the Miami airport.

It’s a finer point of the plot, but its lessons could be applicable to what, until now, has perhaps struck many as a rather provincial story. You’ll remember Sholom Rubashkin, a former senior exec at Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, where nearly 400 workers were detained in a May immigration raid. That was followed by an array of state and federal charges against Rubashkin for alleged child labor and immigration violations. Then, last month, Agriprocessors filed for bankruptcy.

The latest: The Justice Department is contending that Rubashkin should be denied bail in part because he, like all Jews, is entitled to Israeli citizenship if he seeks to immigrate to the Jewish state. Here’s a report from the WSJ’s Jess Bravin.

Bravin writes that the argument against Rubashkin could in theory apply to all Jewish criminal suspects. But the government says that, following the May raid, two of the several managers and supervisors that were charged — both of whom are believed to be Israeli citizens — fled to Israel. Bob Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Cedar Rapids, said the government is not singling out Jews, but “making an argument related to citizenship. If someone was a citizen of Guatemala or had dual citizenship” with that country, a similar argument would apply, he said.

Prosecutors reportedly cited several reasons that Rubashkin, 49, is a flight risk, including a large amount of cash found in a travel bag in his home, along with his birth certificate and passports for some of his 10 children. They also argued that Rubashkin’s “Jewish heritage” made him a “de facto dual citizen” who could abscond to Israel.

Rubashkin’s attorney, Baruch Weiss of the firm Arent Fox, said the government’s argument discriminates against Jews. The Justice Department’s position “means that 5,300,000 Americans would be viewed as heightened bail risks simply because they are Jews,” he argues in legal papers.

Israel’s 1950 Law of Return, notes the WSJ, states that “every Jew has the right to come to this country” with limited exceptions such as those with a criminal past. Washington and Jerusalem signed an extradition treaty in 1962, but federal prosecutors long complained about roadblocks to bringing Israeli defendants to the U.S. for trial.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 19, 2008 (boomark / email).