What I'm watching: AbUSed

A kind reader recently lent me his copy of abUSed: The Postville Raid -- Luis Argueta's feature-length documentary about the 2008 Immigration and Customs Enforcement Raid on the Agriprocessors meat packing plant in the northeast Iowa town.

It's a must watch for anyone interested in labor rights, immigration policy, food production or our rural economy -- all complicated issues in their own right which collided with tremendous force in the conflagration that started when federal agents raided Agriprocessors, arresting nearly 400 illegal workers.

AbUSed tells the story of the raid and its fallout, through interviews with religious leaders like Sister Mary McCauley, with Agriprocessors employees, their families and the attorneys who defended them, with others who were affected by the massive raid -- school teachers, social workers, residents. It  was screened before packed Postville crowds earlier this spring -- many of whom were featured in the film itself.

The details will be familiar to anyone who followed the story as it unfolded, but in greater depth than I've seen.

"This is where everything started to go weird," one eighth grader says, giving the film crew a tour of his classroom, describing what it was like to hear the ICE helicopters begin to circle the town. Filmmakers go deeply into the human story: Mothers, arrested and wondering what was going to happen to their kids. Kids wondering whether their mothers would be coming home. Families eventually split apart by the arrests and deportations. The poverty they endured whether they were left in Postville or sent home to Guatemala.

But the most compelling to me were the candid interviews with those involved in the legal proceedings against the Agri workers.

"I assumed it was going to be the good, old-fashioned standard of one client, one attorney," one attorney says. He didn't take the work, he said, because he couldn't figure out how he'd be able to give so many clients the legal representation they deserved.

Defense attorneys describe their attempts to juggle an unprecedented number of criminal defendants  at (their words, not mine)a makeshift, substandard, and questionably legal detention facility at the National Cattle Congress facility in Waterloo. What brief attorney-client meetings were possible were held in plywood cubicles with no real privacy. Agents could overhear anything that was said inside, attorneys told filmmakers.

By law, prosecutors had only 72 hours from the time of arrest to charge every detainee with a crime. In the film, several defendants describe the chaos that ensued. Here's one:

"'Do you want to talk to a lawyer,' the immigration officer asked."No," I said. Because I didn't know what I would have to explain to a lawyer. I didn't know what was happening."So you don't want to speak to a lawyer?""No, because I don't know," I said."I'm going to assign you a lawyer," he said. Then another person arrived and asked me,"Are you this person?""Yes," I said."OK, come here," he said. He would ask me some questions and then he would leave.When he came back he said, "Here are all your charges." He filled out a form and said, "Sign here.""Why should I sign?" I said."Just sign and stop asking questions," he said.

"No," I said. Because I didn't know what I would have to explain to a lawyer. I didn't know what was happening.

"So you don't want to speak to a lawyer?"

"No, because I don't know," I said.

"I'm going to assign you a lawyer," he said. Then another person arrived and asked me,

"Are you this person?"

"Yes," I said.

"OK, come here," he said. He would ask me some questions and then he would leave.

When he came back he said, "Here are all your charges." He filled out a form and said, "Sign here."

"Why should I sign?" I said.

"Just sign and stop asking questions," he said.

Presiding Judge Mark Bennett, who sentenced as many as 10 former Agri workers per day, calls the plea agreement -- which gave defendants only seven days to decide whether or not to plead guilty to felony charges -- "personally and professionally offensive." Others testify in a Congressional hearing they believe that "exploding" plea agreement was used to force the hand of defendants in criminal cases for which there was very little evidence (identity theft).

They testify that there were no immigration attorneys available at the Cattle Congress, only criminal defense attorneys. According to the film, one pro-bono attorney later would apply for U Visas (for victims of serious crime) on behalf of 48 former Agri workers. Of those, 11 were granted for workers who had been employed in violation of U.S. Child Labor laws and 31 workers who had endured physical or sexual abuse at the plant. only six of the applications, according to the attorney, were denied. Other workers, having come from troubled Guatemala, may have been eligible for political asylum, but because of the way their cases were handled, we won't know for sure.

The film clearly advocates for comprehensive immigration reform. It's unapologetically sympathetic to the former Agri workers -- that might turn more than a few people off.

But Argueta makes his case with facts -- exploring the long- and short-term dynamics that led to the workers' employment and arrests. It's definitely worth checking out.