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Article published: May 14, 2008
Anxiety high inside Postville church

POSTVILLE About 200 people remained at St. Bridget's Catholic Church as it began to rain last night in Postville.

Dozens of scared and tired men, women and children sat in the church sanctuary, listening to an explanation of what will happen to their loved ones who are detained in Waterloo.

The air in the church was stuffy, and reporters, Hispanics and people from the community looking to help were milling around in the entryway and the dining room behind the sanctuary.

Most of the Hispanics are too scared to leave the church, Sister Mary McCauley said.

"We're going to say to them they can go home if they feel comfortable," she said.

One woman at the church asked if she could simply deport herself — go home to Guatemala where she has family and knows her children will be safe.

"What's on their minds is safety — to protect their children, keep their family intact," McCauley said.

An organization from Waterloo sent buses to Postville in case anyone wanted to go to Waterloo to get help from an attorney. McCauley said there wasn't much interest.

"It's just too uncertain all the way around," she said. "I think that's why the anxiety is so high."

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs. ... /1006/news

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Judge cites concern Postville plant will close
Wednesday, May 14, 2008, 1:00 AM
By O.Kay Henderson
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."

The owners of the meatpacking plant are Hasidic Jews and the facility is the nation's largest processor of kosher meats, marketing beef, chicken, veal and lamb. Federal agents say citizens from Guatemala and Mexico as well as a handful from Israel and Ukraine were arrested in Monday's immigration raid at the plant.

There was activity at the plant on Tuesday, but no one on site would confirm whether it was open and slaughtering animals. According to Judge, the plant's owners have not talked with any state officials about their plans. Judge says she wants to assure Postville residents that the state will do what it can to help. "It is going to be difficult for them to pick up the pieces if the plant is dark for very long," Judge says.

An immigration lawyer in Des Moines says the raid in Postville has set off a panic among immigrants elsewhere. Lori Chesser says there are a number of reasons for their concerns. "You know, there are people who are here legally, but have family members who might not be," she says. "There may be people who in the midst of going through an immigration process but might not have a secure status yet that are concerned."

Chesser says after the raid at the Swift packing plant in Marshalltown in 2006, Hispanics in Iowa faced more discrimination. "It raised the level of suspicion among the general population about people who are Hispanic or who look foreign," Chesser says. "I've heard several times since 2006 more reports of more discrimination, of more hateful comments, things like that."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa issued a statement Tuesday afternoon, condemning the haste of federal authorities in charging Guatemalans who worked at the Postville plant. Ben Stone, the Iowa chapter's executive director, says many of the foreign-born workers detained in the raid are being "coerced" into waiving some of their rights and haven't been given ample time to meet with an attorney. In addition, Stone says some of the defense attorneys on site are representing "far more clients than is advisable, or perhaps even ethical."

Almost 314 men arrested in the raid have been detained on the National Cattle Congress grounds in Waterloo and makeshift courtrooms on-site were set up for their initial court hearings.

http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go.cfm ... D0F70F38FF

Immigrants from Guatemala, Mexico, Israel, Ukraine charged in Postville raid
Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 2:54 PM
By O.Kay Henderson
Officials say 90% of the Latino students at Postville high school aren't in class today and a third of all the students in kindergarten through eighth grade are absent. Nearly 400 workers at the meatpacking plant in Postville were arrested Monday on immigration and identity theft violations.

"Traditionally after a raid the immigrant population will go underground and take their kids with them and so the school then has to spend an enormous amount of time to go back out into the field and find out where these children are," Postville superintendent David Strudhof says. "...Our intent is to bring back a sense of day-to-day normalcy as soon as possible, but we've got to get them back to school first."

Some families frightened by news of the federal raid sought refuge at the Catholic church in Postville while others apparently fled town. The superintendent says he and his staff are trying to convince the Latino families who remain that the school is a safe place. "There'll be no raids at the school. There'll be no INS agents coming around the school...to snatch their children up," Strudhof says. "That isn't going to happen."

Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge says it appears all the children of the immigrants arrested in Monday's raid at a meatpacking plant in Postville were taken in by relatives or friends. "The first concern was that children yesterday were cared for and had a caretaker," Judge says. The state had been prepared to place children in foster care if their parents were arrested, leaving the children homeless.

State Senator Mark Zieman, a Republican from Postville, says everyone in town is concerned about the kids. "There were people working with kids last night yet at 10 o'clock last night making sure that they had a safe place to go to and know that they were amongst friends," Zieman says.

According to Zieman, federal agents roared into Postville from all directions with sirens blaring Monday morning and it soon turned into a "news media spectacular."

"ICE is doing a job that they're charged with doing, but I do feel it is fallout from a failed system where the government has failed to act on the immigration policy that needs to be addressed," Zieman says.

Federal authorities say Monday's raid at the kosher meatpacking plant is the largest of its type in U.S. history. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Claude Arnold says 390 people face immigration charges. "Of those, 56 were released for humanitarian concerns; 314 of those arrested are men; 76 are women," Arnold says, "and the nationalities represented of those arrested include citizens of Guatemala, Mexico, Israel and Ukraine."

Court hearings for the detainees facing criminal charges began today in makeshift courtrooms on the National Cattle Congress grounds where the men arrested Monday were taken.

Darin Swenson of KDEC in Decorah contributed to this report.

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Immigrants from Guatemala, Mexico, Israel, Ukraine charged in Postville raid
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