A court reporter writes about the plea situation facing "illegals" after a huge Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on the largest US kosher slaughterhouse far from the border in Postville, Iowa. (pdf)

“Driven single-file in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles, chains dragging as they shuffled through, the slaughterhouse workers were brought in for arraignment, sat and listened through headsets to the interpreted initial appearance, before marching out again to be bused to different county jails, only to make room for the next row of 10.”

He wrote that they had waived their rights in hopes of being quickly deported, “since they had families to support back home.” He said that they did not understand the charges they faced, adding, “and, frankly, neither could I.”

No one is denying that the workers were on the wrong side of the law. But there is a profound difference between stealing people’s identities to rob them of money and property, and using false papers to merely get a job. It is a distinction that the Bush administration, goaded by immigration extremists, has willfully ignored. Deporting unauthorized workers is one thing; sending desperate breadwinners to prison, and their families deeper into poverty, is another.

The unanswered question is whether anyone from the employers, Agriprocessors, was frog-marched off to prison as well. Republicans want to please the working class by loudly opposing illegal workers, but they quietly allow a cheap, disposable labor force to serve their large corporate supporters.