Resolution - Postville, Iowa Immigration Raid Victims

WHEREAS, on May 12, 2008 two hundred and ninety seven Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants were taken into custody during a Immigration Raid in Postville, Iowa conducted by Immigration Customs Enforcement, and

WHEREAS, these men and women where placed in groups of ten, shackled and handcuffed and taken to makeshift courtrooms on a fairgrounds in rural Iowa and

WHEREAS, these immigrant men and women where violated basic human rights and criminalized for working with false documents to obtain employment at a meat processing plant and

WHEREAS, these immigrant men and women plead guilty without proper legal or consulate representation, a clear violation of international laws with the United States of America, Mexico, and Guatemala and

WHEREAS, currently men (fathers) and women (mothers) are being detained and serving 6 months federal sentences and denied the right to challenge deportation and

WHEREAS, currently 52 Latino American Citizen children are being directly affected, emotionally, physically and financially by the immigration laws that have criminalized their parents for coming to the United States of America for a better life and

THEREFORE, we ask President George Walker Bush to commute the sentences of these 297 individuals whose real crime was only wanting to feed their families, to be allowed immediately to be reunited withtheir children and return to their country in a dignified manner since the law will not allow them to live with their children in the USA and

THEREFORE, we request that the resolution be approved by the entire National Membership, staff, and officers of the League of United Latin American Citizens and that President George Walker Bush place into affect an immediate moratorium on all raids in the United States of America and work with the United States Congress and United States Senate to legislate and pass a HUMANITARIAN LEGALIZATION FOR ALL.

Approved this 11th day of July 2008.
Rosa Rosales
LULAC National President