Former Agriprocessors CEO Arrested for Harboring Illegal Aliens
The former CEO of the Iowa meatpacking plant that was the scene of the nation’s largest-ever mass arrest of immigrant workers last May has been arrested on charges of harboring illegal aliens, according to our sister site, Iowa Independent.
Sholom Rubashkin, who stepped down as CEO of Agriprocessors Inc. after the May 12 raid, was charged with conspiring to generate false work documents for the plant’s workers, most of whom came from Guatemala and Mexico. In all, 389 workers — nearly half the plant’s workforce — was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Most of those workers were deported while the firm’s management remained under investigation.
Rubashkin, the son of Agriprocessors’ founder Aaron Rubashkin, is the first high-level employee of the company to face criminal charges for hiring illegal workers. Last month state officials cited the firm for 9,000 violations of child labor laws,
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