Child labor case outlined (faces 83 child labor violation charges, 389 illegal immigrants)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald-AP

By MICHAEL J. CRUMB

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) -- Attorneys in a child labor case on Monday disputed how much former plant manager Sholom Rubashkin knew about minors working at a Postville kosher slaughterhouse, with a defense lawyer arguing prosecutors needed to prove more than bad management to get a conviction.

Rubashkin faces 83 child labor violation charges stemming from a May 2008 raid at the plant in which 389 illegal immigrants, including 31 children, were detained. The trial comes as Rubashkin awaits sentencing in a separate federal financial fraud case that followed the raid at the former Agriprocessors slaughterhouse.

In opening arguments, Assistant Iowa Attorney General Laura Roan flashed pictures of the children on a screen in a Black Hawk County courtroom. He told jurors how old the children were and about the long hours they worked with dangerous equipment and hazardous chemicals.

“The testimony will show they worked with chemicals and that they worked long hours, that they worked nights, that they worked repetitively with electric shears and worked around power machinery that caused them to have to reach in after product,” Roan told the five-woman, three-man jury.


Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20100510/NEWS97/705119987#child-labor-case-outlined

[FreakinDJ]

1. Some one needs to go to jail for a long long time

[KurtNYC]

2. there are no "immigrants" without someone here to hire them

but the crime isn't called "illegal hiring" very often.