Iowa

Hundreds of immigrants have flocked to El Centro Latinoamericana in downtown Waterloo to fill out forms that would designate custody of their children in case there is another raid, but most aren’t asking how to gain U.S. citizenship.

Normally, El Centro serves 10 to 20 clients daily, but workers there are seeing as many as 100 a day since Monday’s raid in Postville. “*

An Agriprocessors employee has returned to Postville after being detained by federal agents following the raid at the world’s largest kosher meatpacking plant on Monday. But she fears her husband has been deported, leaving her and her two children behind.

The woman, fearing retribution, asked that her name not be used. She is wearing an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet so immigration officials can monitor her whereabouts. She was released for humanitarian reasons so she could care for her children, ages 9 and 12.”*

St. Bridget Catholic Church is a place for many of Postville’s Hispanic community to to catch their breath… to cry behind closed doors… and for illegal immigrants, like Eduardo Melendez, to hide from the law.

He says, in Spanish, “They grabbed us by the hair and said, ‘Hurry. Walk.’ Other workers were lying on the floor. Many were in handcuffs.”

Somehow, Melendez and his cousin escaped ICE agents during the raid at Agriprocessors. But eight of their family members, including Melendez’ brother, didn’t make it out. He says the church is now his only option.”*

Hundreds of northeast Iowa Hispanics are living in fear they will be targeted in federal immigration raids, in the wake of the Postville raid Monday. Local volunteers are working to calm the confused and terrified family members left behind.

The anxiety is being felt across Dubuque County, where Hispanics reportedly are not showing up for work and are afraid to leave their homes.

“We’re getting calls from people who are asking if it’s safe to go to work. They panicked when they heard what happened in Postville and walked off their jobs to go see if their families were OK,” said Terri Reynolds, immigration outreach coordinator for the Dubuque Archdiocese Catholic Charities.”*

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Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge says there’s concern the kosher meatpacking plant in Postville will close. “At this point I think it’s just very uncertain,” Judge says. “As the governor said…we do not in any way at any time condone illegal activities and if that was going on in that plant, it needs to be stopped. On the other hand we also have families there that will be impacted, who are lawful residents who today do not have a place to go to work so that is a concern and we’ll continue to try to work through it.”

The governor asked Judge to head the state response to Monday’s federal raid at Agriprocessors in Postville where nearly 400 people were arrested on immigration and identity theft charges. Agriprocessors is the largest employer in Postville. “It’s such an interesting, diverse community in Iowa. Of course, it has been for a long time. They’ve even had books written about it,” Judge says, “but Postville always found ways to make things work and I’m sure that resiliency will be there and they’ll do that again.”"*

Postville was already a small town of 2,300 before the raid. Now city officials say many people are fleeing in fear, not to mention the near 400 plant workers detained.

More than a third of the workers at the city’s largest business are gone. Without those workers many fear Agriprocessors will shut down. If that happens, the mayor says 95% of the shops here will dry up. Petrona Garcia’s convenience store is the only Hispanic business in town with customers the day after the raid.

“All the shops are closed. Not one is open. No one even comes to them,” said Petrona Garcia, business owner.”*

Interpreters hoping to help immigration lawyers arrived at the National Cattle Congress grounds in Waterloo around 9:15 this morning, but when they had not gained access to the site an hour later, most left.

Four interpreters requested by the lawyers to arrive were told by security officers guarding the entrance to go to the other side of the site to meet with security there. Those officers told them to go back to the first entrance and wait across the street.

“They told us we’re not cleared,” said Mario Basurto, 26, a program coordinator at El Centro Latinoamerica in Waterloo. “*

Here are snippets from the introduction to the search warrant served on the Agriprocessors Inc., meatpacking plant in Postville on Monday:

“Over at least the last two years, (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has received information concerning immigration offenses at and by employees of Agriprocessors, including allegations of harboring illegal aliens… engaging in a pattern or practice of hiring and continuing to employ undocumented aliens… document fraud… misuse of Social Security numbers… and aggravated identity theft. This affidavit sets forth some, but not all, of the information ICE and other law enforcement officers possess concerning potential violations of the above-referenced statutes and potentially other criminal laws, but rather, is a summary of evidence in ICE’s possession sufficient to establish probable cause to support this search warrant.”*

Immigration officials raided the Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant in Postville today, arresting as many as 300 people.

Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement entered the plant at about 10 a.m. looking for evidence of identity theft, use of stolen Social Security numbers and for people who are in the country illegally, said Tim Counts, an ICE spokesman.

The raid by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was the largest such operation in Iowa history, said Matt M. Dummermuth, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.”*

School officials in early April were served with a 21-point subpoena from Iowa Division of Labor Services seeking the records of Postville middle and high school students and information about some school employees, the district’s superintendent said.

The subpoena required school officials to provide:

- Names of all current students and students between 2005 and 2007, their ages, addresses, dates of birth, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers.”*

Waterloo, Ia. - Iowa workers without legal documentation went into hiding Monday and rushed to fill out paperwork for the care of their children and property in anticipation of being arrested, lawyers and immigration rights workers said.

Rumors were flying in Waterloo, Storm Lake, Marshalltown and elsewhere that other raids would occur or that they had already taken place.

All appeared to be unfounded.”*

Twelve hours later, Hispanic businesses in downtown Postville were shuttered. Locks held the door at El Sabor Latino grocery store and restaurant. Bowls of chips and salsa were abandoned along with a half-empty bottle of Coke.
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At the Postville Bakery and Restaurant - which also goes by La Panederia y Pasteleria - a sign in the doorway said, “We will be closed at 11 a.m. today.”

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant scattered the Hispanics of Postville. About 400 found their way to St. Bridget’s Catholic Church, waiting for information. Some filled out G-28 forms that allow a lawyer to represent their detained children or minors in their care.”*

Federal Immigration agents on Monday arrested more than 300 people in Postville during a raid at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant.

The raid by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was the largest in Iowa history, said Matt M. Dummermuth, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.

Dummermuth said the raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in northeast Iowa came after months of planning, beginning in October 2007. Federal agents were helped by state and local police. “*

Iowa Governor Chet Culver immediately reacted to Monday’s raid. He says those who bring undocumented workers into the U.S. should be prosecuted.

“I’ve said repeatedly that I think that has been a problem in the Midwest and across the country. A lack of enforcement in terms of holding those companies, holding those in management accountable for what, in some cases, is exploiting the workers. So I’ve always been open to employer sanctions,” said Governor Culver.”*

The Agriprocessors meatpacking plant appears to be back in business this morning, less than 12 hours after federal and state agents finished an immigration raid there.

More than 100 cars were in the employee parking lot this morning. A company official standing near the entrance was talking on the phone with someone about “today’s chicken kill.””*

Workers in the country illegally have likely been at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville for almost 20 years, said author Stephen Bloom, a journalism professor at the University of Iowa.

“This is the worst-kept secret in Iowa,” said Bloom, who in 2000 published a book chronicling how Agriprocessors’ Hasidic culture affected Postville, a town in northeast Iowa.

The only “thing you need to work at the plant was a strong back and a strong stomach” and a Social Security number, whether it was valid or not, he said.

“Iowans don’t want to do this kind of work for minimum wage and few or no benefits,” he said.”*

A top official at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville that was the subject of an immigration enforcement action Monday is an active Republican campaign contributor, records show.

Sholom Rubashkin, whose family owns the company, since 2000 has made $23,750 in federal campaign contributions, according to Federal Election Commission records.”*

Agriprocessors Inc. opened in Postville nearly 20 years ago, bringing with it a promise of jobs and a culture that changed the small, rural northeast Iowa town.

Aaron Rubashkin came from New York to open what has become the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant.

Shutting down production at the plant will have a significant impact on the kosher meat sales, said Menachem Lubinsky, chief executive of Luicom Marketing and editor of KosherToday.”*

Postville became a melting pot in 1987 with the arrival of 200 Hasidic Jews who turned a defunct meatpacking plant into a kosher slaughterhouse.

Business boomed at the plant, reviving the economy while pitting the newcomers against the Lutheran community.

Stephen Bloom detailed the struggle in his 2000 book, “Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America.” When the slaughterhouse first opened, local workers were given jobs. Then in the early 1990s, Eastern European workers came to work in the plant.”*

A union trying to organize Postville meatpacking workers had asked federal immigration authorities earlier this month not to raid the Agriprocessors Inc. plant while a government investigation of possible labor law violations was under way.

Mark Lauritsen, international vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, wrote a May 2 letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, advising officials of an ongoing labor dispute at the Postville plant.”*

The largest workplace raid in Iowa history Monday resulted in the arrest of more than 300 people and reignited the debate over immigration.

As two law enforcement helicopters hovered overhead, dozens of federal agents descended on Agriprocessors Inc., the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse.

The 300 people arrested represent almost one-third of the plant’s 968 workers, and federal officials said the number of arrests could increase. The number is three times as many as were arrested in a raid 18 months ago at the Swift plant in Marshalltown.”*

An attorney for a union representative accused of protecting illegal immigrants working at a meatpacking plant in Marshalltown told a jury during closing arguments on Wednesday that his client may have said some unlikeable things but wasn’t guilty of any crimes.

Braulio Pereyra-Gabino was arrested by federal immigration officials in July 2007. He faces charges of harboring illegal workers, false use of a Social Security number and aggravated identify theft. His trial in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa started Monday. “*

The presence of immigration officials at National Cattle Congress has stoked fears of an impending raid and caused some in the Hispanic community to avoid workplaces and public areas.

Four days after The Courier first reported the installation of trailers, generators and ventilation equipment on the grounds, the presence of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement remains a mystery. Tim Counts, an ICE spokesman in the Twin Cities, refused comment on Tuesday. He said he didn’t know when, or if, the agency would explain its activities.”*