Thread: IA-Fallout in Postville

Sunday, August 24, 2008
Fallout in Postville
School feels impact of immigration raid at meatpacking plant
By BEKAH PORTER TH staff writer


POSTVILLE, Iowa -- Fear filled the auditorium, flanked by uncertainty and doubt.

Apprehension settled like a fog, smothering students and staff gathered at the Cora B. Darling Elementary and Middle School in Postville.

Some cried. Some sat silently. Some asked for their mothers, and some punched keys on their cell phones, openly using the devices forbidden by teachers who now offered no protest.

And all the while, helicopters whirred in the distance.

"It was like a bomb, or threat or tornado all of a sudden hit your school while you're in it," said Principal Chad Wahls.

But unlike other disasters, Postville students could not face this threat together. A small school that prides itself on solidarity found itself segregated.

When the final bell rang on Monday, May 12, Hispanic students were ushered to the auditorium.

"And the white kids just walked out of the door and got on the bus," Wahls said.

'It's not about funding'

On May 12, Immigrations and Customs Officials descended on the Advertisement

northeast Iowa community of 2,300.

By day's end, nearly 400 undocumented workers at Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant had been detained. And at the school, more than 100 Hispanic students wondered if their parents were among those taken.

School staff staged a base station for families to find each other, ensuring that each student left the building with a relative.

"We didn't want to send them on the bus or have them walk home and nobody be home," said Wahls, who is now in his second year as principal. "That was the worst part. When you have a school where you have come together so much with the cultures, to all of a sudden say, 'We have to separate you.'"

On May 13, 120 students failed to return.

Since then, enrollment has fluctuated as deportations and voluntary departures increase.

And with each student leaving, funding potential also vanishes. In Iowa, district budgets are determined on a per-pupil basis -- to the tune of about $5,500 for child. Foreign language students generate even more, as the state helps support English as a Second Language courses.

But empty desks and decreased budgets are the least of Wahls' worries.

"It's not about funding," he said. "That is not why I care about them coming through the door. It is about educating these kids, kids that we care about."

'It will repopulate'

Thursday was the first day of school for Postville.

The doors swung open, and in they came -- student upon student upon student. A quick head count showed enrollment at 365 for the elementary and middle school -- about 20 fewer students than on the last day of school.

Numbers are far from what some speculated at summer's start.

"I thought we would be dramatically down," Wahls said.

Wahls cannot estimate how many Hispanic students have left the area. Some fled with their parents who were not caught in the raid. Others left with their parents who voluntarily returned to their native countries. Even more are waiting for their fathers to finish serving five-month sentences for entering and working in the country illegally and doing so under stolen identities. After their sentences are served, they will be deported.

That means around Christmas, another wave of students could be gone.

"I haven't even begun to count how many that could be," Wahls said.

Officials with the local Hispanic ministry have estimated that one-third of the school's population could evaporate.

But if they remain until Christmas, they can be counted.

Oct. 1 is the state's deadline for submitting enrollment numbers. Once those numbers are given to the state, the state can calculate how much funding the district will receive for the 2009-10 school year. And if a drastic dip does occur at Christmas, it will not officially affect funding until Oct. 1, 2009, when enrollment will be counted again.

Whatever the count, taxpayers pick up the tab, perhaps an unsettling fact for critics of illegal immigrants and tax dollars used to assist them.

Wahls thinks the number of students eventually could climb.

"Who knows what will happen," he said. "Agriprocessors is still hiring. If they hire another 200 people in the next few months, they could bring their children, and they would come to school. This town will always be a diverse town. Whenever you come in and raid and take people out, it will repopulate. Postville is an easy place to come and be accepted, whatever your nationality."

'A good group'

"I don't know too many people who can sing with gum in their mouths, and it wouldn't be too cool if you blew a bubble down your trumpet," Wahls told a group of middle school students.

The kids giggled at the thought, and Wahls paused before continuing with his introductory speech explaining various rules and regulations -- including where gum was and was not allowed.

On Thursday, students blended together despite the differences in their heritage.

Postville bills itself as "Hometown to the World," and its school follows suit. Hispanic children sat next to white children. White children sat next to the children of the Somali immigrants who have come to fill the empty slots at Agriprocessors, Inc. And the Somali children sat next to the Jewish children who belong to the parents who came to help work at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant.

And Wahls addressed them all.

"I hope it's a good year," he said to his students. "It looks like a good group of kids."

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=213531

Yesterday, zeezil posted a video about challenging birthright citizenship:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-129309.html

It gave me a little bit of hope.