Court interpreter denounces immigrant abuses

“A line was crossed” during the prosecutions against undocumented workers after an immigration raid in Iowa last May, according a Spanish-language court interpreter. In an essay publicized last week, Erik Camayd-Freixas said that the nearly 400 defendants were “forced” into accepting plea deals which carry five-month jail sentences. Language problems and illiteracy among some of the workers originally from Guatemala and Mexico were circumvented during the “fast-track” legal proceedings, according to Camayd-Freixas:

This worker simply had the papers filled out for him at the plant, since he could not read or write Spanish, let alone English. But the lawyer still had to advise him that pleading guilty was in his best interest. He was unable to make a decision. "You all do and undo," he said. "So you can do whatever you want with me"…

"If you want to see your children or don't want your family to starve, sign here." That is what their deal amounted to. Their plea agreement was coerced...

As a citizen I want our judges, not a federal agency, to administer justice. When the executive branch forces the hand of the judiciary, the result is an abuse of power and arbitrariness that is unworthy of a democracy founded upon the constitutional principle of checks and balances.

The observations by Camayd-Freixas bring to light the need for comprehensive immigration reform to be enacted as soon as possible. The status quo on immigration has been an unmitigated disaster which- in the case of the Postville raid- unduly punishes the families of those arrested as well as customers who rely on the plants’ products. The longer politicos wash their hands of trying to fix the immigration issue, the greater the problems that will arise.

Image- New York Daily News (“Two of nearly 400 people arrested during an immigration raid of Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville, Iowa.”)

Sources- New York Times, The Tennessean, AlterNet, Democracy Now