Thread: Postville, IA: Mayor: Feds turned my town 'topsy turvy'

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Mayor: Feds turned my town 'topsy turvy'
Story Highlights
Tiny town of Postville, Iowa, has become ground zero of nation's immigration debate

Agents raided town's main plant in May, arrested nearly 400 illegal immigrants

Mayor says, "It's been nothing but a freaky nightmare since May"

Jewish resident: "They dropped a nuclear bomb on us"

By Wayne Drash
CNN.com Senior Producer
October 14, 2008
Editor's note: This is part one of a two-part series on illegal immigration in Middle America.

POSTVILLE, Iowa (CNN) -- About a dozen Somali Muslims stand outside their makeshift mosque on Lawler Street, its sheet-draped windows emblazoned with the words "Sunday Mattress." Women are covered head to toe in traditional Muslim robes.

Across the street, a couple of Latino immigrants stroll the sidewalk in front of the town's long-standing Mexican restaurant. Just down the road, scores of ultra-Orthodox Jews walk down the street to the local synagogue. It's not uncommon to see people from Russia, Ukraine and the tropical island nation of Palau here as well.

Welcome to ground zero of the nation's immigration debate -- the tiny town of Postville, Iowa, a rural community of 2,400 tucked into the northeast corner of a state that's 94 percent white.

It's a town that's been turned "topsy turvy," Mayor Bob Penrod says, since hundreds of heavily armed federal immigration agents swooped in a few months ago and raided its main employer, Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant. Watch "a military raid on this town" »

"It makes a person feel kind of angry," Penrod says. "It's been nothing but a freaky nightmare since May."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it is "confident that our actions at Agriprocessors were appropriate for this investigation."

On May 12, nearly 400 illegal immigrants, most of them from Guatemala and Mexico, were taken from the plant, shackled and sent for processing at the National Cattle Congress, a complex where dairy shows and other events are held in nearby Waterloo.

"ICE did not create the illegal alien problem at Agriprocessors. While we understand that our actions have an impact on communities, the responsibility for any disruption lies squarely with the law violators, not with the agency responsible for carrying out the law," ICE spokesman Tim Counts said in a written statement. See photos of ground zero of America's immigration battle »

It was the largest workforce raid in U.S. history at the time -- the start of a series of large raids across the country.

Helicopters buzzed the town, an airplane circled it and agents canvassed the area.

Another 300 undocumented workers who weren't at the plant at the time of the raid soon split town with their spouses and children, officials say. In essence, the town lost nearly a third of its residents in a matter of days.

"When you have a raid like that, it's just beyond your recognition," Penrod says. "It was nothing like you ever dream of. Believe me."

Five months later, tensions are high. Crime is up. Businesses are hurting. The nation's kosher supply has taken a big hit because the plant is only functioning at partial capacity. The plant is owned by Abraham Aaron Rubashkin, a powerful member of the Hasidic Jewish community.

There's a seething anger toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"To me, they took a problem that needed a 22-caliber bullet and they dropped a nuclear bomb on us," says Aaron Goldsmith, a Hasidic Jew and former Postville city councilman. "They made a poster child out of Postville." See where Postville is located »

Goldsmith says he believes immigration policy should be dealt with. But if federal officials wanted to correct the immigration situation in Postville, he says, they should've done it step-by-step, not with brute force.

"They turned people into cattle," he says. "If they wanted to stop this problem, if they wanted to scare everybody away, all they had to do is go into Los Angeles [California] and they could've taken out 1 million people in a day. But they don't because there's too much political clout.

"So they go to a place where there's no political backbone. They go to a place where the government's willing to throw us to the dogs."

Down a picturesque tree-lined street off Lawler Street sits St. Bridget's Catholic Church whose pastor, Father Lloyd Paul Ouderkirk, is both soft-spoken and outspoken. It is his church that became a refuge for the town's immigrants the day of the raid and the weeks afterward.

"They had attacked this town with a military-style raid -- brought in 900 immigration police to arrest 389 people. I mean, what is that other than a military raid on this town?" he says.

Ouderkirk scans his church now, the sun beaming through stained-glass windows. "Can you just imagine all these pews here full of people, sleeping 300-400 people a night?"

Not too far from his church, Agriprocessors sits at the edge of town along a railroad track on about 60 acres of land. A giant menorah juts into the sky at the main entrance. A sign on the building reads, "Agriprocessors a great place to work!"

CNN was denied entry, and representatives of the meatpacking plant have declined to respond to subsequent follow-up phone calls. In a statement immediately after the raid, Agriprocessors said it "cooperated with the government in the enforcement action. We intend to continue to cooperate with the government in its investigation."

It is behind the plant's gates that the federal and state governments contend crimes occurred -- with the company using illegal immigrants as its primary workers.

"It appears, based on 2007 fourth-quarter payroll reports, that approximately 76 percent of the 968 employees of Agriprocessors were using false or fraudulent Social Security numbers in connection with their employment," ICE alleges in its affidavit.

Separately, the state has filed more than 9,000 misdemeanor charges against the owners and managers at Agriprocessors -- including the owner Rubashkin -- accusing them of child labor law violations.

The criminal complaint, filed by the office of Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, says the violations involved 32 youths under the age of 18, including seven under the age of 16.

ICE has no apologies for cracking down.

"Local disruption is easy to see and report on. What is less obvious is the devastation caused by the hundreds of illegal aliens who stole the identities of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents," ICE's Counts said.

"It can take months or years for victims to recover from even the most benign case of identity theft. Even less obvious, but just as damaging, is the corrupting effect on the nation's legal identification systems."

In the wake of the raid, Agriprocessors has named a new CEO, New York attorney Bernard Feldman. It has also retained Jim Martin, a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, to help with the company's compliance with immigration and employment law.

Postville residents who spoke to CNN say those at Agriprocessors need to be punished if the allegations they face are true. But residents also say the debate over illegal immigration is far more complex than the rhetoric often heard over AM radio or cable TV.

They say the Latino residents were productive members of the community who paid taxes, even if under false pretenses, and had been here for years, and that Agriprocessors is key to the survival of the town and region.

Immigration officials, residents say, should've acted a decade ago -- long before the immigrants' roots were settled.

"If I had to say anything to anybody about the whole deal: Don't let it go so long that it becomes a huge problem," says Brian Gravel, the principal of Postville High School.

But he adds, "Picking on a town of 2,500 people in northeast Iowa is not my idea of a naturalization or immigration policy."

"You can corner this one plant with federal agents and deport people. That's one way to do it, but that's a good way to ruin towns -- ruin a small northeast Iowa place."

Since that day in May, the Latino population has dwindled.

The vice president of Palau has journeyed thousands of miles to Postville and offered about 160 of his countrymen for the open jobs at Agriprocessors. Residents of the island nation can legally live and work indefinitely in the United States under a special arrangement with the U.S. government.

Some from the Pacific island, where the average temperature year-round is 82 degrees, have already begun arriving. The rest will be coming soon, just in time for the frigid Iowa winter where temperatures dip below zero.

Another 125 Somali Muslims, legally classified as refugees, have already moved in. Many have come via the Minneapolis area, as well as Illinois and Texas.

"All of the Somalis came here to work at the plant," says Abdi Hasan, who came to the United States from Somalia five months ago. "I came to look for a job here."

He says they've been welcomed by the locals -- "no problems, no mistreatment, no nothing."

Hasan gets paid $10 an hour at the "kill house" at Agriprocessors, he says. His only complaint: Not being allowed to say Muslim prayers while at work.

"They don't allow it," he says. "That's a problem at times."

Mayor Penrod stands on the sidewalk outside his office. He looks out over Lawler Street, where big rigs rumble and cars freely move about.

"What do I love about my city? I love the progress we've made," he says.

But now, he says, "Everything is tension based."

"You can just sense the friction," he says. "I hope I'm wrong."

www.cnn.com

"ICE did not create the illegal alien problem at Agriprocessors. While we understand that our actions have an impact on communities, the responsibility for any disruption lies squarely with the law violators, not with the agency responsible for carrying out the law," ICE spokesman Tim Counts said in a written statement. See photos of ground zero of America's immigration battle »

You got that right.

"Local disruption is easy to see and report on. What is less obvious is the devastation caused by the hundreds of illegal aliens who stole the identities of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents," ICE's Counts said.

Amen to that. Whine, whine, whine because you got caught.

Ouderkirk scans his church now, the sun beaming through stained-glass windows. "Can you just imagine all these pews here full of people, sleeping 300-400 people a night?"

Oh yes, I can see it in my minds eye. Your coffers going empty and you patting yourself on your robes saying to yourself, "aren't I compassionate, aren't I the good guy for aiding and abetting and breaking the laws. Don't look at that or the peoples ID who were stolen. Just look at me this poor lowly priest doing "what is right in my own eyes."

Immigration officials, residents say, should've acted a decade ago -- long before the immigrants' roots were settled.

"If I had to say anything to anybody about the whole deal: Don't let it go so long that it becomes a huge problem," says Brian Gravel, the principal of Postville High School

I agree with that.......it was just easier to call us all racists than to do what should have been done ions ago.

Ours towns have been turned up-side down too.......we all don't have just a few hundred who work.......we have millions who don't and take jobs from the citizens who need them and make life so intolerable people flee their home towns.

Originally Posted by crazybird

Immigration officials, residents say, should've acted a decade ago -- long before the immigrants' roots were settled.

"If I had to say anything to anybody about the whole deal: Don't let it go so long that it becomes a huge problem," says Brian Gravel, the principal of Postville High School

I agree with that.......it was just easier to call us all racists than to do what should have been done ions ago.

Ours towns have been turned up-side down too.......we all don't have just a few hundred who work.......we have millions who don't and take jobs from the citizens who need them and make life so intolerable people flee their home towns.

Amen!!!

It's a town that's been turned "topsy turvy," Mayor Bob Penrod says, since hundreds of heavily armed federal immigration agents swooped in a few months ago and raided its main employer, Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant. Watch "a military raid on this town" »

"It makes a person feel kind of angry," Penrod says. "It's been nothing but a freaky nightmare since May



I would argue that it was, in fact, Agriprocessors which turned Postville "topsy turvy" and created the freaky nightmare Mr. Mayor describes.

Postville had none of these problems until this company bought their own little corner of Iowa, as well as the silence, of the mayor and everyone else there who could have....and SHOULD HAVE......done something about what was going on there.

Wanna be angry? Then lay the anger where it belongs......not at the feet of the Feds.

Immigration officials, residents say, should've acted a decade ago -- long before the immigrants' roots were settled.

"If I had to say anything to anybody about the whole deal: Don't let it go so long that it becomes a huge problem," says Brian Gravel, the principal of Postville High School.

I agree they should have "acted" in 1987 to Enforce our Immigration Laws and Secure our National Borders; but better LATE than NEVER!

I'm certain the principal's "huge problem" is the decrease in the Federal money he receives to "educate" the ILLEGALS and their Anchors!

Part Two of Series


POSTVILLE, Iowa (CNN) -- The Rev. Lloyd Paul Ouderkirk sits beneath a cross of Jesus, the sun shining through the stained-glass windows that line his church.

"Nobody can tell me to shut up," says Ouderkirk, the pastor of St. Bridget's Catholic Church in the tiny town of Postville, Iowa, the epicenter of the nation's immigration debate in rural communities.

Ouderkirk is outraged at the way federal agents swooped into town and rounded up nearly 400 illegal immigrants on May 12 in a raid on the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, Agriprocessors. He's angry at the bosses of the plant who are accused of mistreating workers, including children, and using a workforce that the government contends was 75 percent illegal immigrants. Video Watch "we cried with them" »

And he's upset that Iowa Gov. Chet Culver and other top state officials haven't set foot in Postville since the raid left the town of 2,400 "bleeding to death." The raid was the largest work-force raid in the nation's history at the time, what one court interpreter said "criminalized the undocumented workers on a grand scale" for the first time.

"I think every elected politician -- no exceptions -- should bow their heads in shame," Ouderkirk says. "Upset?! Yeah, I'm upset. I mean give me a break ... If the elected politicians couldn't do any better than this to come up with a good, just immigration law, they should hang their heads in shame."

Within the next half hour, about two dozen women from Guatemala and Mexico begin arriving at his church, along with two men. All were picked up in the raid, but the federal government released them on humanitarian grounds because they are parents of children who are American citizens. Each wears an ankle bracelet. They are seeking political asylum or temporary residency within the United States. Photo See photos around Postville, Iowa »

Unable to work now, they come to St. Bridget's for financial help. The church pays their medical bills, food, rent and other daily expenses.

"They walk the streets here monitored wherever they go. They can't leave, they can't work, they all have children," Ouderkirk says. "So effectively, they are prisoners in our town and in this parish."

Ouderkirk isn't the only one complaining. Mayor Bob Penrod said his town has been turned "topsy turvy" since the raid. He too wondered why he hasn't heard from the governor. Video Watch a "military raid" on this town

"Basically all we wanted was some advice on how to deal with some of the situations that keep arising," Penrod says.

Gov. Culver's office says his administration played a "leading role" in an investigation of the meatpacking plant that led to more than 9,000 charges of child labor violations against its bosses and managers. "Gov. Culver has been a vocal critic of Agriprocessors," his office said in a written statement. It added that while the governor may not have visited, he has worked with state agencies to "address the needs of the families in Postville."

Agriprocessors declined comment for this story. In a statement after the raid, the company said it "cooperated with the government in the enforcement action. We intend to continue to cooperate with the government in its investigation. ... We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families whose lives were disrupted and wish them the best."

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stands by the raid in Postville. "Illegal aliens often turn to criminal activity, including document fraud, Social Security fraud or identify theft, in order to get jobs," ICE spokesman Tim Counts said in a written statement. "The demand for fraudulent documents and identities created by them creates thriving criminal enterprises that supply them."

Ouderkirk, who came out of retirement after the raid, says it's costing his church $80,000 a month, and the church only has enough money to keep paying through the end of the year. "It's pathetic when you have what was labeled by the man who directed the raid here as a 'very successful raid.' How successful is this when it does this to the children and breaks up families?" Ouderkirk says.

Rocelia Hernandez, a mother of four, came from Mexico seven years ago and worked at the kosher plant for three years. Displaying her ankle bracelet, she admits she entered the country illegally, but says she came to improve her children's lives.

"Since I arrived here, I haven't done anything but work because I wanted to have a house and have better things in the future for my children," Hernandez says.

She says she was given a "Social Security number that they invented for me." Asked who made it, Hernandez says, "I don't know. I never knew."

Hernandez says she's confused about why the government cracked down on her. The United States, she says, is a generous country that provides aid to countries to help impoverished people around the world.

"If the Americans have such a big heart or the government has such a big heart for other people, why don't they protect those of us who are already here? Why do they kick us out?" she says.

"I want my son to learn the language and stay here and have a better life," Hernandez says of her 5-year-old American-born son.

Ouderkirk puts it more succinctly. "This is no way as a democracy to treat people. I don't care if they are legal or illegal. You don't tear families apart like this," Ouderkirk says. "The women and children we're taking care of right now are no more criminal than people driving down the street breaking the speed limit." See where Postville is located »

The federal government disagrees. Of the 389 captured that day in May, nearly 300 of them were charged with felony counts of aggravated identity theft and fraudulent use of Social Security numbers. Those slaughterhouse workers were tried and convicted in less than two days on a cattle fairground where Iowans typically come to cheer cowboys who lasso raging bulls. Most were sentenced to five months in prison.

"The federal court got taken for a ride," says Erik Camayd-Freixas, a federal certified interpreter who was there. "There was no presumption of innocence."

A court interpreter is supposed to be an impartial representative of the government. Camayd-Freixas has worked as an interpreter for 23 years, but says what happened in Postville touched a nerve and forced him to speak out.

"The truth is that nothing could have prepared me for the prospect of helping our government put hundreds of innocent people in jail," he said in a written personal account.

Camayd-Freixas says those arrested pleaded guilty to the charges often not knowing what they were pleading to.

A person charged with identity theft has to knowingly take the "identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of federal law," according to federal identity theft law. ICE's affidavit is vague on that point, describing workers going to a third-party source for documents.

Most of the Agriprocessor workers, Camayd-Freixas says, had no idea they were using somebody else's identity because they "took whatever number was given to them." Camayd-Freixas says he understands the workers were in America illegally, but he questions the legality of trying them on felony offenses.

"These are common workers and they are parading them as criminals. There's something wrong here," he says. "I was there and I saw it."

He says the guilty pleas could have a staggering effect on separate, extremely serious state investigations of Agriprocessors. The state of Iowa filed 9,300 misdemeanor charges against owners and managers at Agriprocessors accusing them of child labor law violations.

The state needs the immigrants -- the same ones the federal government wants deported -- to testify in any potential trial against their bosses.

"The immigrants have no credibility because they plead guilty," Camayd-Freixas says. "The whole thing is just ill conceived."

Camayd-Freixas, acting as an academic consultant for the Guatemalan consul general, recently visited with 94 of the Postville workers being held at two facilities in Miami, Florida. Their sentences ended last weekend and they will likely get deported beginning this week. He says 16 have been recalled for the Iowa investigations.

"They want to be deported back to Guatemala as soon as possible," Camayd-Freixas says. "Every week they don't work is another week their children go hungry."
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Back in Postville, Ouderkirk says he'll keep speaking his mind. He invites vocal opponents of illegal immigration to come to his church and "walk in the shoes" of the immigrants he's helping. He says he's "gotten hate letters like you wouldn't believe."

"If people have a right to spout off like that, then I have a right to speak in defense of these poor people," he says. "This is a free country. I have a right to speak what I believe in, and I have a right to speak up for poor people whose voice is being denied."

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/10/15/po ... pstoryview

This is another example of Elitist Special Interest Groups supporting the ILLEGALS instead of United States Citizens. The Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Contributors, Big Labor, Big Religion, Chamber of Commerce, Special Interest Groups, and former Elitist presidents of Third World Countries consider United States citizens only as “units of laborâ€