Sounds familiar, but..

it ain't Japan.

In temporary courtrooms at a fairgrounds here, 270 illegal immigrants were sentenced this week to five months in prison for working at a meatpacking plant with false documents....

I dunno, somehow I doubt these arrests and sentences had a heck of a lot to do with false documents...

The hearings took place on the grounds of the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, in mobile trailers and in a dance hall modified with black curtains, beginning at 8 a.m. and continuing several nights until 10...

Please don't infer that the immigrants themselves were treated like cattle.

..the immigration agent, said the criticism of the proceedings was “the usual spate of false allegations and baseless rumors”...

Yes, critics of the US gubbermint are unpatriotic idjits spreading lies. Good god man, what reason would a bureaucrat have to be anything but honest and straightforward?

Mr. Nadler said the plea agreements were the best deal available for his clients. But he was dismayed that prosecutors had denied them probation and insisted the immigrants serve prison time and agree to a rarely used judicial order for immediate deportation upon their release, signing away their rights to go to immigration court.

What?!!!! They have rights?

Linda R. Reade, the chief judge who approved the emergency court setup, said she was confident there had been no rush to justice...

Of course not. And if Linda or her friends ever get in trouble with the law, she hopes that the same type of process is applied. Even better, she'd like her hearing in a circus tent.

The immigration lawyers, Judge Reade said, “do not understand the federal criminal process as it relates to immigration charges.”

Uh-oh. Could this be a problem for the Honorable Judge Reade? If the lawyers who represented the now convicted criminals did not understand immigration law, would that not mean the the defendants lacked competent legal representation? Would that not be grounds for appeal? Would that not be unconstitutional and to say the very least, un-American?

Oh wait! The Constitution? Does that still apply to anything or is it simply a tool of pinko commies? No, pinko commies are out-of-date. I meant terrorists and their sympathizers. This is a security issue, after all, and security trumps everything.

At least there will be more jobs for real Americans at the sweatshop meatpacking plant. And it is nice to see that the USA is sticking with the policy toward immigration that has existed since the first real Americans landed at Plymouth Rock.

Full NYT article here.