Commentary on Affidavit of support for Postville Warrant

I just finished reading the affidavit ICE filed seeking a Blackies warrant with the issuance of 697 arrest warrants against John Does, which was approved by Magistrate Judge Jon Stuart Scoles to execute the Postville raids. ICE argues it had probable cause to enter the plant and search for and identify all 697 employees named in the warrant under their alias names by questioning all persons present during the raid, seizing all identification documents from persons, searching and seizing employee biometric information kept by employer, and searching and seizing the employers' computer. The affidavit, however, reveals several questionable practices or claims in support of the affidavit that a lawyer representing the immigrants could have raised in a motion to supress in a criminal trial, at least. The basis for probable cause comes from the following sources:  a paid (by ICE) confidential informant; confessions by former Agripocessor employees detained under unrelated criminal charges allegedly after waiving Miranda, information the SSA provided to ICE on no-match letters;and alleged consensual interviews of other aggriprocessor employees. But was the informant reliable? Did the immigrants in criminal detention adequately receive Miranda protection? Were these interviews with other employees truly consensual?  Did ICE follow adequate procedures to obtain the SSA no-match letter information in the course of a criminal investigation? Did the execution of the warrant exceed its reasonable scope? Unfortunately, the expeditious guilty plea by almost all immigrants in their criminal proceedings prevented the airing out of these arguments in court. For the full text of the affidavit, click here.

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