Allegedly, Iowa's Senator Tom Harkin hit back hard after being asked several  tough questions on a Iowa Public Radio call-in show last  week regarding his continued silence on the Postville Prosecutions and the call by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)  (in light of the Supreme Court's ruling in Flores-Figueroa v. United States) for Attorney General Holder to order a full investigation of the Postville prosecutions. AILA believes all charges should be dropped  against Postville workers for whom the threat of prosecution under the federal identity statute was a miscarriage of justice.

Harkin is reported to have sided with Congressman Steve King in calling the Postville prosecutions absolutely necessary to keep U.S. borders safe. He allegedly rejected all calls for an investigation into the Postville prosecutions as foolish whining by immigration rights zealots. When he was asked about his controversial nomination of Postville Prosecutor Stephanie Rose to be promoted to U.S. Attorney, Harkin claimed  Rose  is a real professional. He said it is a shame that immigration rights zealots are trying to make her a scapegoat for a policy they don't like but whether they like it or not that policy is keeping American save from illegals. The tape of the program is not available as a pod-cast yet but if these reports are true, Harkin is sounding more like George Bush every day "Good job Brownie (Rose)!"

Either way Harkin's selection of Stephanie Rose is a huge insult to the Latino community.  At the time of the Postville prosecutions, she was not a low ranking member of the office but was in a leadership position as third in charge in the office for criminal prosecutions behind only United States Attorney Dummermuth and Chief Deputy Richard Murphy. Harkin has yet to acknowledge the many due process violations that occurred during the Postville prosecutions and the failure of judgment that Rose exhibited in participating in the cases. The plea agreements negotiated by Rose were unprecedented in the history of U.S. jurisprudence. Never before had a U. S Attorney Office decided to execute this type of "exploding" plea bargain as a tactic to prosecute over 300 workers within a two week period. With a "ticking time limit" the plea bargains asserted great pressure on the workers to waive all criminal and civil rights, plead guilty to a criminal document fraud charge and serve five months in prison all within a week of the raid. Otherwise, prosecutors threatened to prosecute them on a more serious aggravated identity theft charge that imposes a mandatory prison sentence of two years.  

The "streamlined" prosecutions assumed all workers were guilty.  The "fast track" procedures precluded the proper exploration of potentially available defenses to the workers.  The workers agreed to the pleas without understanding that they may be eligible to legalize their immigration status. However, the tactic of using an "exploding plea" agreement that threatened a mandatory two-year prison term effectively took that option away from the workers.  The plea agreements offered by Rose were calculated to take advantage of the workers' worries about their families. Almost all workers were represented by lawyers with little or no immigration expertise who were forced to represent on average 17 workers during a very short period of time. Clearly this was premeditated and calculated to force the workers to waive all rights and submit to the criminal charges and then deportation after serving five months in prison.

Rather than treat these workers with decency, Rose and her colleagues chose to grind them down further. They took advantage of the workers' lack of resources, limited rights, and lack of powerful friends. It is very difficult to understand what motivated Rose and her colleagues to exercise their prosecutorial discretion with such aggression against such powerless people other than their own ambition.  '' Good Job Harkin-Rose!"