WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama's choice for northern Iowa's U.S. attorney treated illegal immigrants with excessive harshness, critics say.
Stephanie Rose, the lead prosecutor in a massive 2008 crackdown on illegal immigrants working at a Postville, Iowa, meatpacking plant, has been nominated by Obama for the position, and is supported by a key White House ally, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
But critics say the prosecutions -- which remain the biggest-ever use of tough criminal charges against immigrants caught working without authorization -- typified Bush administration policies of bringing felony charges against workers guilty only of violating civil statutes.
"Does she stand by those tactics?" David Leopold, the president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, asked the Times. "Would she engage again in this type of prosecution of scores of undocumented workers guilty of nothing more than civil immigration violations?"
Rose declined to comment but White House spokeswoman Katherine Bedingfield told the newspaper: "As U.S. attorney, Stephanie Rose will be a great advocate for the people of Iowa. The president strongly supports her nomination."
