The Supreme Court later ruled that undocumented workers cannot be charged with aggravated identity theft unless it was established that they knew that they had used an authentic Social Security number, prompting calls by some immigration attorneys and members of Congress to dismiss previous convictions against immigrants for aggravated identity theft and consider dismissing the guilty pleas sought against the Postville workers.

[2] Several employees, including lower- and middle-level managers, were convicted on charges of conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants, aggravated identity theft, and child labor law violations, among others, serving prison sentences between 60 days and 41 months.

Neither the owner, Aaron Rubashkin, nor his sons Heshy and plant chief executive Sholom, who were in charge of the management of Agriprocessors, were convicted of immigration or labor law violations, although both Aaron and Sholom were initially charged with 9,311 counts of child labor law violation, for which they could have faced over 700 years in prison if found guilty.

[6] Financial irregularities brought to light by the raid and subsequent investigations led to a conviction of Sholom on bank fraud and related charges.

[10] According to a retired federal agent, a raid on Agriprocessors expected to lead to the arrest of about 100 illegal workers, mostly from Eastern Europe, had been planned in 2000, and canceled at the last moment over political concerns.

Sources quoted in the affidavit and application for search warrant also alleged the existence of a methamphetamine laboratory at the slaughterhouse, and that employees carried weapons to work.

The arrested workers were taken to a nearby fairground, the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo, Iowa, where they were charged with aggravated identity theft, a criminal offense that carries a mandatory two years sentence, and briefed on their rights and options.

In an expedited procedure known as "fast track," hearings were scheduled over the course of the following three days, in which the judges took guilty pleas from the defendants, who were bound by handcuffs at the wrists as well as chains from their upper torso to their ankles, in groups of ten, and sentenced them immediately, five at a time.

[15] The Rubashkin family, ultra-Orthodox Jews of the Lubavitcher hasidic movement, who owned and operated Agriprocessors, has denied any knowledge of criminal activity.

However, the financial irregularities that were brought to light by the raid and subsequent investigations led to a $35 million bank fraud charge against Sholom, who was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison.

[28] Aggravated identity theft charges had formerly been dismissed against human resources employee Laura Althouse, supervisor Brent Beebe (one of two operations managers at the Agriprocessors plant), and Sholom Rubashkin, the motion contended.

[36] In the plea, Beebe admitted that he had conspired with Sholom (identified in the proceedings as a former vice president) and others a week before the May 12, 2008 immigration raid at the plant to buy fake identification documents for 19 employees.

[38] Meltzer had been hired by the meat plant′s new owner after having been dismissed by Agriprocessors′ government-appointed trustee, and remained at the company for several months after he pleaded guilty to financial fraud.

[45] On August 29, 2013, Amara signed a plea deal, admitting that he "conspired with Agriprocessors CEO Sholom Rubashkin and other executives for at least five years before the raid to harbor immigrants 'knowing and in reckless disregard of the fact' they had come to the U.S.

He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to harbor undocumented immigrants for profit, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, though federal sentencing guidelines called for a shorter term.

Attorneys Office said any conviction on the immigration charges would not affect his sentence, writing, "dismissal will avoid an extended and expensive trial, conserve limited resources, and lessen the inconvenience to witnesses.

"[48] Without that trial, it is unlikely that much of the immigration-related evidence gathered at the Agriprocessors site following the raid, or much of the key witness testimony, will ever be publicly revealed.

"[58] Transcending in fairly short order its initial local impact, the raid received widespread and enduring national publicity.

[60] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has criticized the three-day series of court hearings in the aftermath of the raid, and has published a copy of a "script" that attorneys were given to use in discussing possible plea agreements with their clients.

[13] Officials from the office of United States Attorney Matt Dummermuth, whose staff assisted in the preparation of the documents used in the hearings, have defended the proceedings.

Chet Culver, governor of Iowa, criticized Agriprocessors in a guest editorial on August 24, 2008, comparing it to Upton Sinclair′s 1906 novel The Jungle: "Alarming information about working conditions at the Postville plant ... brought to national attention by the raid forces me to believe that, in contrast to our state's overall economic-development strategy, this company's owners have deliberately chosen to take the low road in its business practices.

"[61] One day later, then US senator from Illinois and presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke out against Agriprocessors' managers, without mentioning the company by name, while campaigning in Iowa.

Jewish organizations had voiced concern about Agriprocessors meat products meeting ethical standards of kashrut ever since the first criticisms of its slaughtering methods and working conditions were leveled, in large measure by the animal rights organization PETA,[64] brought to the attention of the general public by The New York Times in November 2004,[65] and notably to that of a Jewish readership by the newspaper The Forward in 2006.

[68] Hence, in the wake of the raid, Modern Orthodox rabbis met in Los Angeles on May 18, 2008 to put in motion the corresponding creation of a kosher certification (hechsher) serving to address ethical issues for their own congregations.

[69] The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly issued on May 22, 2008 a statement requesting "that consumers of kosher meat evaluate whether it is appropriate to buy and eat meat products produced by the Rubashkin's label," adding that "the allegations about the terrible treatment of workers employed by Rubashkin's have shocked and appalled members of the Conservative movement as well as all people of conscience.

"[71] The liberal Orthodox Jewish organization Uri L'Tzedek [72] (English: "Giving Light to Righteousness"), founded in 2007, called for a boycott of Agriprocessors products.

[73] The boycott was lifted six weeks later, after Agriprocessors had appointed a former U.S. attorney as compliance officer and had promised changes in their treatment of workers,[74] even though the management had not been replaced, contrary to the announcement made by the plant's owner immediately after the raid.

According to Novak et al, "The psychosocial, economic, communal and identity-based stressors activated by the Postville raid may have interfered with Latina mothers' neuroendocrine balance and coping resources, leaving infants vulnerable to a dysregulated endocrine environment."