The Latest | Immigration Iowa

CEDAR FALLS - The United States doesn't have an immigration crisis, Erik Camayd-Freixas said Tuesday during a talk at St. Stephen the Witness Catholic Student Center.

Instead, America suffers from "a crisis created by immigration raids and deportations," explained the scholar, an interpreter at federal hearings following the 2008 raid of Postville's Agriprocessors meat-processing plant.

"By not addressing the root causes of migration, we are feeding an intergenerational migration that no wall can stop," said the Florida International University professor. "Desperate people do desperate things."

Camayd-Freixas has testified before Congress about his experiences in Postville, where 389 immigrants - most of them from Guatemala and Mexico - were arrested for identity theft. On Tuesday, the reform advocate questioned the legality of those charges and said the migrant workers suffered human rights abuses while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

His nearly two-hour speech - "Immigrant Rights and American Values" - also addressed the flaws of current legislation. Because of increased deportations, more immigrants are staying in the U.S. than ever before, he said.

"As removals increase, voluntary returns decrease," Camayd-Freixas said. "In absolute numbers more people stay here than before when they could go back and forth. We've closed off the border, and we've impeded circular migration."

There are roughly 200 million undocumented workers worldwide, according to United Nations statistics. The United States estimates that close to 11 million U.S. laborers are in the country illegally, said Camayd-Freixas, a Cuban refugee who went on to receive his doctorate from Harvard University.

About 200 people attended the professor's evening talk. Sister Kathleen Grace, one of the event organizers, said she was pleased with the turnout. In the wake of the raid, many area churches, including St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Postville, provided food, clothing and shelter for immigrants.

"How we treat our neighbors and our workers says so much about ourselves and our practical values," said the nun, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis in Dubuque.

Camayd-Freixas echoed that sentiment in his speech, calling for a "prioritized path to legalization," a strategy that would include conferring legal status on the immigrant parents of U.S.-born children.

"We cannot deport 10.8 million people," he said. "It would be disastrous for our economy, for our food supply and for our future."

Camayd-Freixas - whose uneducated father worked long hours to send him to college - paused.

"And," he said. "It would be un-American, quite frankly."