Agriprocessors supervisors arrested

Jeff Reinitz

Jul. 4, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- POSTVILLE -- Two supervisors at Agriprocessors in Postville have been arrested for allegedly helping undocumented workers at the meat-processing plant.

Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43, and Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, in Postville Thursday.

Guerrero-Espinoza and De La Rosa-Loera were charged with aiding and abetting the possession of fraudulent identity documents and encouraging aliens to live in the country illegally.

Guerrero-Espinoza was also charged with aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft.

ICE officials are also asking for the public's assistance in locating Hosam Amara, 43 and of Postville. He is wanted on a federal arrest warrant, but details about the charges have been sealed.

Court records describe a push to clean up immigration documents at the plant in advance of the May raid at the plant.

An initial appearance for the two was held Thursday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids.

The charges are related to the May 12 ICE raid at Agriprocessors in which 389 workers -- mainly from Guatemala and Mexico -- were detained for immigration violations, 300 of them charged with criminal violations.

De La Rosa-Loera and Guerrero-Espinoza are the only supervisors to have been arrested in the case.

De La Rosa-Loera oversees the facility's poultry kill, and Guerrero-Espinoza is in charge of the beef kill, according to court records. The men oversee three additional departments apiece and report directly to one of two plant operations managers, records state.

The charges against the supervisors stem from interviews with a former human resources employee and undocumented workers at Agriprocessors, many of whom were also testifying before a secret federal grand jury in late June, court records state.

They told investigators of an effort by the two supervisors to update employee documents in the weeks before the surprise immigration raid.

On the Thursday or Friday before the Monday raid, Guerrero-Espinoza told some of his workers they needed new IDS and Social Security numbers to continue working at the company, court records state.

"Guerrero-Espinoza also stated that the Social Security numbers previously used by the employees were reported by the Internal Revenue Service as being bad," according to one account a worker gave to authorities.

"(The worker) stated he knew that company officials were concerned about ICE agents in Waterloo," according to an affidavit filed by ICE Special Agent Michael Fischels.

Information about ICE agents setting up an operation at the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo came out in early May, but the exact nature of their presence wasn't disclosed. After the raid, the NCC grounds were used to house detained workers and process them through initial court appearances.

Records state Social Security Administration officials had been warning Agriprocessors for years about names of their employees not matching the Social Security numbers submitted on their W-2 forms. In 2006, the company received a letter noting there were 500 discrepancies.

In Postville, Guerrero-Espinoza told workers they needed to give him $200 to $220 and a photograph for the new IDs.

Some described $20 of the cost being for gasoline or as Guerrero-Espinoza's commission.

They brought him the money and pictures, and some gave fake names they wanted to use, records state.

On the day prior to the raid, the workers were provided new application packets complete with fake resident alien cards. They signed the packets and returned it to company officials.

De La Rosa-Loera was telling some workers in his division they couldn't return to their jobs because of bad Social Security numbers about 15 days before the raid.

He told them they needed to get new documents with new names to continue their employment at Agriprocessors.

A group of workers then traveled to Des Moines for documents, and others went out of state, according to court records.

They showed De La Rosa-Loera the IDs and were told they could return to work, records state.

During the raid, authorities found 96 fraudulent resident alien cards in the plant's human resources department. Most of the cards appeared to have been produced from the same source.

Agriprocessors officials could nt be reached for comment.

Anyone with information on Amara's whereabouts is asked to call ICE at (866) 347-2423.

Contact Jeff Reinitz at (319) 291-1578 or jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0150-26449766