Clerk’s office and probation office staff from the Northern District of Iowa collaborate in the clerk’s office trailer on the fairgrounds of the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa. The court relocated to the grounds in response to a massive worksite enforcement operation by the Department of Justice in May.

Early morning on April 16, 2008, an assistant U.S. Attorney and an agent of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wheeled a cart down the halls of the U.S. Courthouse in the Northern District of Iowa in Cedar Rapids. At the chambers of Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles, they unloaded six file drawer-size cardboard boxes filled with nearly 700 arrest warrants. Scoles recalls, “The ICE Agent would sign the complaint and affidavit, hand it to me to be signed along with a warrant, and it would then be refiled. This went on for the better part of the day.”

The warrants were to be executed in what ICE would call the largest single-site raid of its kind nationwide. On Monday, May 12, 2008, the Department of Justice reported that ICE had executed a criminal search warrant at a meat-packing company in Postville, Iowa, “for evidence relating to aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers and other crimes, as well as a civil search warrant for people illegally in the United States.”

Chief Judge Linda R. Reade held court in Courtroom Trailer #1. Advance planning prepared the court for the 297 people who pled guilty and were sentenced by the court in Waterloo.

From the plant, more than 320 men and women were taken to detention on the fairgrounds of the National Cattle Congress in nearby Waterloo, Iowa. The same day, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa announced they had temporarily relocated a number of judges and other court personnel and services to Waterloo in response to the anticipated arrest and prosecution of numerous illegal aliens.

The decision to relocate was made by Chief Judge Linda R. Reade—but only after months of planning.

“I was advised informally last December that a major law enforcement initiative was being contemplated—although at that time I was not given any details,” said Reade. “As I received more information—including that there might be over 700 arrests—I talked with my fellow judges about how best to handle the cases. We developed checklists on initial appearances, status conferences, pleas and sentencings. We worded statements and instructions so they would interpret well. The court definitely couldn’t accommodate that number without planning.”