Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: Does a Kosher Butcher's Fraud Mandate a Life Sentence?

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: Does a Kosher Butcher's Fraud Mandate a Life Sentence?

A reasonably balanced opinion on the Rubashkin case.

Happy news! Valentin* is on his way home!

Lil Miss A's first grade teacher was a wonderful lady I will call Sherry *. Sherry is American born, your typical blonde-haired, blue-eyed Germanic Middle American gal. She told me about her family - her husband Valentin and their son, Little Valentin. Tales of the adventures of Little Valentin were big sources of amusement for Lil Miss A and her class. Big Valentin is a Mexican citizen. He wasn't here legally; I think he came legally and then his visa expired, though I'm not entirely clear on that detail. Anyway, he had established himself in Iowa with a wife and then a sweet little boy, a home, a church, a life.

It started to weigh on Sherry and Valentin's hearts that he was breaking the law by continuing to live here. So they looked into the process for how they could get a visa for Valentin. Nothing was really going to change; he already loved his adopted country, and he certainly loved his wife and child. He just wanted to show his respect for this land by keeping its laws. So they traveled to Mexico and his home and filed the paperwork while visiting with Valentin's extended family.

Horror of horrors, his visa was denied! They could not believe it. Sherry was placed in the sickening position of having to take their son and fly home to Iowa, leaving her husband, Little Valentin's daddy, behind. At first she hoped all would be cleared up in 6 weeks. Six long, sad, lonely weeks without her husband, without Daddy. Then weeks stretched into months. They got a lawyer. They got a state legislator on their side. More paperwork. The months became seasons. MORE paperwork. Waiting. More waiting. They were able to fly down and visit Valentin but then they had to leave him once again. Their church helped some, but maintaining two households plus all the travel and legal bills was very draining on the family finances.

I prayed for this situation faithfully for months and then somehow I lost track of it. I no longer saw Sherry every day, as Lil Miss A was now in 3rd grade, on the other side of the building, so I didn't bump into Sherry constantly at the school, and I failed to check on her. A couple of weeks ago I finally saw her and asked how things were going, and was shocked to learn that Valentin had still not received permission to return to Iowa!

Well, here is the happy news! After well over a year apart, the family is about to be reunited at last. Sherry told me she got a letter yesterday saying Valentin can come home to his family! Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!

On a side note, and not meaning to detract from Sherry and Valentin's joy, I would like to point out that Sherry and I live in the same county as Postville, infamous for its ICE raid, deportations of hundreds of illegal workers and house arrests of dozens more, families torn asunder, the utter desperation of parents unable to be with their children and children taken from their parents. Heartbreaking stories - but those involved were breaking the law of the land. Now here are Valentin and Sherry. They did their best to uphold the law, to fix what was broken, and have been punished for it.

This nation's immigration policies need one giant overhaul.

* Names changed in respect for the family's privacy; if they ever give me permission to post their real names, I shall do so.

So did something happen?

In the past 24 hours my hit counters have gone crazy. It seems everyone is searching for more information on St. Bridget's in Postville again. So what happened? Is there new news that I am missing?

Helping in Postville (You Don't Have to be Catholic)

I was rather discouraged this morning by how my blog has been perceived... as anti US Government, apparently. I'm pro US Government. I'm anti Homeless Hungry Children. I'm anti Splitting Up Families. I'm anti Breaking the Law but I am pro Mercy to Sinners.

Anyway, I did a quick blog search to see if I am truly alone in the world, and found out I am not.

The Lutherans (ELCA) Help: Lutheran Staff Blog

Members of St. Paul Lutheran Church, Postville, Iowa, are responding to the needs of people who have been affected by a May 12 federal immigration raid at a Postville meat processing plant..., said the Rev. Stephen P. Brackett, St. Paul Lutheran Church....

Church members and others in the community have stepped in to help family members who were not arrested but affected, Brackett said.... Brackett estimated that as many as 30 members of St. Paul are helping out at St. Bridget's by providing and serving food, providing clothing, helping with sleeping arrangements, tutoring students and reading to younger children. Also helping out at St. Bridget's are several students from Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, one of 28 ELCA colleges and universities, he said.... A nearby Presbyterian church is housing a few people.... The synod is working with the local Catholic diocese to assist at St. Bridget's, Ullestad said. The synod's greatest concerns are keeping families together, providing for their needs and making sure children are safe, he said....

Bishop Gregory V. Palmer of the United Methodist Church speaks: http://www.sojo.net/images/blog/080513_bishop_statement.pdf

We are called to stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers [...] whose lives were disrupted today... and who are facing... likely separation from their... loved ones. It is our belief that we are all deeply connected to one another through Christ without regard to one’s nationality or legal status...

A (liberal) Jewish website speaks up: It's Our Turn to Help

The Rubashkin’s raid made big news earlier in the week.... But, now, it’s time to help. With hundreds of worker’s [sic] arrested, thousands of their family members are now in limbo. They have no money, no income, and no resources. They are frightened to apply for work, frightened to go shopping, and their kids aren’t going to school. Charities in Postville are pitching and do what they can to help these people, and unfortunately not-surprisingly, Agriprocessors isn’t helping out. I don’t often ask people to give tzedakah, and if I do, it’s a casual request. This is different. Anyone who has ever eaten kosher meat in this country has benefited from the hard, poorly compensated work these people have done, and now that they are in desperate need it is our turn to help....

Agriprocessors might be a large, unscrupulous company, but to these people, it represents one thing - Judaism. Please give. Please write a letter thanking them. Please let them know that you care.

Finally, here are two blog posts that I thought worth referencing.
Blog for Iowa: Support Requested
Prairie Robin goes to Postville

St. Bridget's Church, Postville, could use some help (updated)

Lots of folks are still taking refuge in St. Bridget's, and they are not going to leave till ICE leaves town. The church ran out of food last night. If you care to help feed the children and other family members who are hiding there, you can send a check to (updated address):

St. Bridget's Hispanic Fund
P.O. Box 369
Postville, IA 52162
in care of Sister Mary McCauley

The phone number that comes up on Google is for the rectory; if you want to talk to the kitchen staff, call (563) 864-3142 instead.

Update:

I have had a couple of conversations with townspeople about the situation in Postville. Reactions range from pity for the children who are so bereft at the moment, to "Let 'em go hungry. Ship 'em back to Mexico." I'd like to clarify that I am not anti-raid, anti-ICE, anti-Homeland Security. I appreciate that they stepped in to enforce the law of the land. My complaint is that no allowances were made for caring for the bystanders who did not choose to come to Iowa with their fathers and/or mothers, or did not choose to be born here. My beef is also with the owners and managers of Agriprocessors, who could not see past the dollar signs well enough to insist that their company kept the law of the land. There are ways to keep your work force legal. Others manage. They could have, too.

I'm really concerned about the cases where it appears that ICE looked at individual family units and determined that though Mom and Dad will be deported, there is a high school aged student still at home who can take responsibility for the younger siblings. I think of my own high school aged daughter, responsible as she is, and what would happen should Barry and I just suddenly be hauled off in a bus with no hope of return, with the government expecting her to take care of her brother and sister and all their needs, and it makes me shiver for those high school kids down there.

One more thought (and I cannot promise it will be the last): As parents, part of our job is to keep our children safe. Breaking the law is not protecting our children. I could get hauled away in a truck if I broke the law. Any parent could. Now these particular parents brought their families to Iowa to provide a better life for them than they had in Honduras or Guatemala or Mexico. Yet the fact that their being here broke the law, still leaves the children in a very tenuous situation.

ICE and Homeland Security nail Agriprocessors, Inc., of Postville

Read the story here.

My thoughts:

• One of Barry's EMT classmates is down there, a schoolteacher in the Postville school district. She was called out of class to help drive some people who had been injured in the raid to the hospital for care. She told Barry that the injuries were mostly as the result of panic as the raid began, not by ICE agents getting too rough or anything like that. Just scared people. Anyway, when she got back to her class, she found a bunch of very scared, tearful students who were wondering if they would ever see their parents again. That's where the humanitarian releases come in: They will see them.
• Look who is in trouble here. Not the rabbis, but the workers. Too bad Agriprocessors doesn't just automatically apply for work permits for all its employees who don't have them. They can surely afford a few attorneys to guide their people through the system. It's work that they have a hard time finding people to do. So when they find willing workers, they need to take care of them, and that includes not encouraging them to break the law, or even going so far as to break the law with them.

I figured Agriprocessors would be shut down, but Barry's friend said no, they opened this morning as usual.

UPDATE: This has gone far beyond just an immigration and labor issue. We now have identity fraud and methamphetamine production in the mix. But I'm sure a majority of them are just people, trying to make a living that they cannot make at home.

I am quoting from Barry's schoolteacher/EMT friend here:

"The news reports are so wrong when they say that at least one member of the family has access to their children. They have high school students in which both parents were taken and the federal government said that they were old enough to take care of themselves and their siblings. We don't know what to do. We have called the Governor of Iowa, various members of the House and Senate and no one cares and no one is helping except the Red Cross. The kids are scared to death. Even the white children are terrified. They want to know if the black helicopters are going to come and take them away. They think they took their Hispanic friends away and that they were killed...."

To me it appears that there is a lot of confusion, and that perhaps the elaborately planned raid did not count on entire families living in Postville with their wage-earners working illegally for Agriprocessors. Maybe this is an unusual situation. You would think that if they had all this time to plan, they could have considered what to do with the families. Barry feels the raid was deliberately planned for a time when the children would be in school, separated from their parents.

We are trying to find out what we as a family can do to help the children. Miss B is really up in arms.