The Untold Story of the Postville Raids: A Federal Judge Put Hundreds of Immigrants Behind Bars While Her Husband Invested in Private Prisons
Samantha Michaels in Mother Jones reports on an untold story about the 2008 immigration raid at the country’s largest kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, an immigration milestone for the Bush administration. Nearly 400 workers were arrested in the bust, which cost $5 million and was then the biggest workplace immigration raid in U.S. history. They were driven to the National Cattle Congress, a fairground in Waterloo, where several federal judges would handle their cases over nine business days.
Overseeing the process was Judge Linda R. Reade, the chief judge of the Northern District of Iowa. The mass proceedings sparked allegations of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct and led to congressional hearings. Erik Camayd-Freixas, an interpreter who had worked at the Waterloo proceedings, testified that most of the Spanish-speaking defendants had been pressured to plead guilty. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said the unconventional process seemed “like a cattle auction, not a criminal prosecution in the United States of America.”
But here was the part of the Postville story that was untold until now:
“Yet amid the national attention, one fact didn’t make the news: Before and after the raid, Reade’s husband owned stock in two private prison companies, and he bought additional prison stock five days before the raid, according to Reade’s financial disclosure forms. Ethics experts say these investments were inappropriate and may have violated the Code of Conduct for United States Judges.”
Hat tip to Professor Cappy White and law student Joshua Gonzales for bringing this story to my attention.
KJ