Stephanie Rose — Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) choice for Iowa Northern District U.S. Attorney — is proceeding on course through the vetting process despite continued protests from immigrant rights groups, a person with knowledge of the nomination process told Main Justice today.
Stephanie Rose
The deputy chief of the office’s criminal division was recommended to President Obama in March. Immigration lawyers and immigrant rights advocates have since questioned Rose’s role in a controversial round-up of 300 undocumented immigrants working at a meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa last year.
American Immigration Lawyers Association Vice President David Leopold has said the prosecutions from the raid weren’t fair because there weren’t enough lawyers to represent the workers. There is also a petition with more than 300 signatures that asks the Justice Department to investigate the Postville raid and questions Rose’s role in the prosecutions.
Harkin in May said Rose didn’t take part in the decision to prosecute the immigrant workers. The raid was conducted during the term of U.S. Attorney Matt Dummermuth, a Bush appointee who never won Senate confirmation. Read our previous post here.
The persona familiar with the nomination told Main Justice that the questions surrounding Rose’s role in the raids aren’t an issue for the administration. The person said Rose hasn’t been formally nominated yet, because the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has all U.S. Attorney candidates on the back burner.
Obama also hasn’t nominated a U.S. Attorney for the Iowa Southern District. Harkin recommended Nick Klinefeldt for the post in March.
I may be wrong but I would be surprised and very disappointed to learn that the Obama Admsitration believes this quote is true “the questions surrounding Rose’s role in the (Postville) raids aren’t an issue.”
This non-sourced quote is a slight of hand- or “spin” because no one is blaming Rose for the raids it is her role in the Postville Prosecutions that followed the ICE raid that is the stain on her record.
At the time of the Postville Prosecutions, Stephanie Rose was not a low ranking member of the Northern District of Iowa United States Attorney office. She 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. Recently, Stephanie Rose was asked about her role at Postville. She defended the raid and prosecutions saying “executing the massive operation required amazing effort and a ton of good work.” The plea agreements negotiated by Stephanie Rose were calculated to take advantage of the workers worry about families they had been supporting with their wages. Almost all workers were represented by lawyers with little or no immigration expertise that 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. Stephanie Rose is apparently blind to the fact that the Postville workers were begging to be released to go support their families in Guatemala. Her “ton of good work” really amounted to ramming these cases through before anyone could raise an effective defense.
The Postville Prosecutions is but the premier example of the reprehensible policies that have occurred on her watch as a leader in the Northern District office. Recently, Federal District Judge Mark Bennett spelled out the extreme practice of the Northern District in sentencing cases in his opinion in the Beiermann case (https://tinyurl.com/r7v96w). He details that in only two of the 1576 felony sentencing cases held in the District since late 2008 had the USA office agreed to a downward variance. (The 1576 number does not include the 304 Postville sentencing.) It has been reported that no other United States Attorney Office has a sentencing record even close to these low downward variance agreement numbers. With these facts in mind, Judge Bennett then openly questions whether the Northern District USA office is fulfilling it is obligation “to ensure the fair and impartial administration of justice.” (See Beiermann, pages 21-23). Presumably several of these cases were ones that Rose directly handled herself and all of these cases occurred during her tenure as Chief Deputy of the Criminal Division. Clearly, her record at best, even without the Postville Prosecution stain on her record, is mediocre. Her role in the Postville prosecutions is more than troubling but her unqualified support for the Postville Prosecutions and ICE raid tactics even with the benefit of hindsight makes her nomination a complete disgrace.
Rose Defense
The criticism of Rose’s selection by Harkin has come from across the country. Stephanie Rose has attempted to brush-off criticism of her role in the May 2008 Postville Prosecutions with these dismissive assertions:
1. Rose claims she was only “just following orders from “Washington.” She claims criticism of her Postville prosecutorial performance is unfair because she was just doing her job as dictated by decisions made in “Washington.” In any event, she claims she was only involved in the in the Postville Prosecutions for 11 days total.
2. Rose claims any criticism of her Postville Prosecutorial role is being made by “immigration rights zealots.” She claims her critics’ real quarrel is not with her but with current U.S. Immigration Policy. She argues that she is being made a Postville scapegoat by immigration zealots.
Below we address Rose’s Postville assertions in defense of her record head-on.
Rose’s False Defense # 1: Washington Made Me Do It
FACT: # 1. The Northern District of Iowa United States Attorney’s Office made the decision to criminally prosecute 80% of the Postville workers – (highest percentage every.)
FACT: # 2: The Northern District of Iowa United States Attorney’s Office made the decision to prosecute the Postville workers using an exploding plea agreement and fast track trials.
FACT: # 3: Never in the history of the United States have there been federal prosecutions conducted like the ones that occurred stemming from the Postville ICE raid
FACT: # 4: Rose was in a leadership position as third in charge of criminal prosecutions at the time of the Postville Prosecutions.
At the time of the Postville Prosecutions, in May 2008, Rose as Chief Deputy of the Criminal Division was not a low ranking member of the office but was in a leadership position as third in charge of criminal prosecutions. The record shows that the decision to fast track prosecute the Postville workers in a manner never used before or since by another United States Attorney Office after a ICE worksite raid was made by career prosecutors in the Northern Iowa District office. Standard Department of Justice (DOJ) policy and practice dictates that the local United States Attorney Office makes all federal charging decisions. If a local United States Attorney office does want to prosecute cases using expedited trials (also know as fast-track) DOJ must approve but DOJ does not initiate A careful review of the Congressional Postville Hearing transcript clearly indicates that standard DOJ charging policy was followed in the Postville Prosecutions. Rose’s claim that that all decisions were being made in Washington has been directly contradicted by the sworn testimony of the DOJ’s Senior Associate Deputy Attorney General, Deborah Rhodes the Postville Congressional hearing held last July. (See Congressional hearing transcript at https://tinyurl.com/oqncj8, page 65—“all of the charging decisions were made by the career prosecutors in the local office.” Page 67: “The charging decisions were made by the career prosecutors in the office in Iowa.”)
It seems more than implausible that Stephanie Rose while operating in the position of Chief Deputy of the Criminal Division had no clue that the Postville prosecutions were being planned by her colleagues in the Iowa office until just before the ICE raid. It also seems implausible that she would have no prior knowledge of the ICE Postville investigation nor that criminal complaints and criminal arrest warrants for 697 Postville workers that were being prepared and sought by her office some 30 days before the ICE raid. Either Rose was involved in the Postville prosecutions to a greater extent than she has being willing to acknowledge or she was displaying that leadership trick of “putting her head in the sand.” Neither of these conclusions is what we would expect of a United States Attorney candidate.
No one is asserting that Rose should be held solely accountable for the Postville prosecutions. However, there is no doubt that the Postville prosecutions were the most important cases to occur in the Northern District of Iowa since Ms Rose has been employed in the office. The fact that the cases occurred while she was in a leadership position and “played a central role in the raid and prosecution” is an important part of her record that requires careful examination. Even if it is true that Stephanie Rose played no direct policy role in the Postville prosecutions, she was still acting according to her oath as an officer of the court and as a federal prosecutor. Ethically and morally, her hands were not tied once she was given her Postville prosecution assignment to negotiate the “exploding” seven-day plea agreements with attorneys representing the workers. Even if the “raid was initiated by Washington,” or the prosecution designed by other prosecutors in her own office, as Chief Deputy of the Criminal Division and as an Assistant United States Attorney, Rose still had ethical duties. It was her responsibility to carefully review and scrutinize each prosecution for any ethical or constitutional due process problems. The ethical and constitutional issues created by the prosecutions were numerous and should have been obvious to her. Stephanie Rose was not able to understand the numerous defects in the prosecutions, she chose to overlook the defects or she just plain failed to see any problems with the prosecutions as executed. Any one of these conclusions raises serious questions about her judgment and fitness to be a United States Attorney at this point in her career.
Rose False Defense # 2: Postville Prosecutions were “a ton of good work” & critics are “immigration rights zealots?
FACT #`1 Community leaders, lawyers, commentators and legal scholars from across the country believe the Postville prosecutions were an outrage.
Fact #2: Postville Prosecutions Were Vastly Different that Standard Federal ICE Work Site Raid Prosecutions
As Deputy Criminal Chief, Stephanie Rose helped execute the unprecedented use of expedited trials and exploding plea agreements to convict 306 undocumented workers detained as a result an ICE work site raid in Postville. Recently, Stephanie Rose was asked about her role at Postville. She defended the raid and prosecutions saying “executing the massive operation required amazing effort and a ton of good work.”
Rose’s continued support for the Postville Prosecutions even with the benefit of hindsight has brought Rose sharp criticism. As the headlines, reports and quotes sited below indicate, community leaders, lawyers, commentators and legal scholars from across the country believe the Postville prosecutions were an outrage. These experts and leaders reviewed the facts regarding the Postville prosecutions. While Rose maintains Postville Prosecutions were a success, these commentators were appalled and ashamed to learn about the numerous constitutional and due process violations that occurred in the prosecutions.
There is no doubt that Immigration Policy in the United States is a controversial issue. On both sides of the immigration policy issue one can find those who have a profound disagreement with current policy—some think current policy is too soft –others argue it is to harsh. There are many who take issue with a strict application of current immigration laws to arrest and civilly deport illegal immigrants. Many have a disagreement with ICE conducting work site raids that lead to the civil deportation of illegal workers. There is even more severe criticism directed at ICE for use of paramilitary tactics in conducting work site enforcements actions that lead to civil deportation of illegal workers. Yet Stephanie Rose and her supporters fail to acknowledge it is the unprecedented use of criminal charges, expedited trials and exploding plea bargains that were used against the workers arrested at Postville that has drawn harsh national condemnation. Rose’s nomintation by President Obama would be rewarding her for less than admirable leadership role in the Postville Prosecutions. We can do better than Stephanie Rose.