Thread: Postville Raid Targets Tell Their Own Stories

Postville Raid Targets Tell Their Own Stories

New America Media, News Feature//, Cliff Parker, Marcelo Ballvé, Posted: Oct 19, 2008


Editor’s Note: On May 12 2008, in what was then the largest single-site workplace immigration raid in U.S. history, ICE agents burst into a kosher poultry processing plant in the small town of Postville, Iowa. 389 men and women, mostly Mexican and Guatemalan were picked up in those raids.

Over the next few months NAM contributing editor Marcelo Ballvé and video producer Cliff Parker have followed the story of that town and the decisions the men and women made about their futures.

But what happens to the story when the reporter moves on? There is always the next raid, the next story. As raids happen in Laurel, Mississippi what happens to the women in ankle bracelets in Postville, Iowa?

After profiling some of the women in Iowa, NAM decided to provide them with flip cameras so that they could continue telling their stories. Here are some of the stories they told (and continue to tell) supplemented by the print reporting and videos produced by NAM.

Postville, Iowa Lifecast

One of the women fighting deportation is MarÃ*a Laura Gómez. "I didn't know anything about rights, or laws, or anything like that," says MarÃ*a Laura Gómez, 31, who arrived in Postville from Guatemala in 2005 and worked in the plant packing chicken parts into styrofoam containers.

One day, Gómez was on her way to sign a form agreeing to voluntary deportation when she received a call from assistants to lawyer Sonia Parras Konrad, informing her she might be able to attain a U visa, as a potential collaborator in a federal investigation into sexual harassment at Agriprocessors.

Gómez, who had worked at the plant packing chicken parts, took it as a kind of sign. "That was when I grabbed on to the idea of not wanting to leave, come what may," she says.

Read more about MarÃ*a Laura Gómez and the Postville 28 here

VIDEO: A life cast of MarÃ*a Laura Gómez -- Why she is fighting deportation.


Here is the latest life cast from MarÃ*a Laura Gómez Maria Laura Gomez Lifecast (Click image to play video)



This is a streaming MP4 video - you'll need Quicktime 6 or later to view it.


After Iowa Raid, Families in Limbo
Every day, they sit in homes and apartments around Postville, amidst the debris of their former lives, replaying the traumatic raid in their memories. With too much time on their hands, they worry, despair -- and they’re afraid.

Veronica Cumez
"At night I can't sleep, because I'm afraid someone is going to come and grab me," says 32-year-old Veronica Cumez, who lives with her 14-year-old daughter on a street of orderly homes and lawns just east of Main Street. "Maybe it's nerves," she says, "but I think they're going to come again."

Each of the released workers wear an electronic ankle bracelet with a GPS device attached, so Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents can monitor their movements. They are not allowed to leave Iowa until the U.S. courts decide what to do with them. They have to charge the bracelet every day, and cannot ever take it off, not even to bathe.

Read more of Marcelo Ballvé's story of the Postville raids here.



This is a streaming MP4 video - you'll need Quicktime 6 or later to view it.


Related Articles:
Bus Trip to Postville Protest Yields Surprises

Hispanic Caucus to Investigate Postville Trials

Interpreting the Largest ICE Raid in U.S. History: A Personal Account

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Ben on Oct 20, 2008 at 00:58:47 said:

She is univited here and has been asked to leave. Thats like someone moving into your house uninvited, taking your neighbors job, sending you a bill for their health care and then refusing to leave and you end up paying for their legal defense. In that case you would call the police and get them hauled off to jail. She got a break for humanatarium reasons and shes taking advantage of it and we are paying for it. I hope they place a big fat stamp on her records that will never let her migrate here legally and then remove her rapido!!!If she wants to fight for her family let her join all on them in her native country and she can fight her own goverment


Ben on Oct 20, 2008 at 00:40:56 said:

I think its time we learned we can can\'t be an ATM and problem solver for everyone on the planet. They weren\'t invited and should leave the country. If they want to beloyal to their native mexico and wave their mexican flags then let them go back there and clamor for their rights.


Buzzm1 on Oct 19, 2008 at 12:40:48 said:

ENFORCE OUR LAWS AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION!!!

THERE WILL BE NO AMNESTY!!!

OUR ACCEPTABLE IMMIGRATION REFORM

#1. Secure Our Borders!!!
#2. Mandate E-Verify for ALL Employees!!!
#3. Mandate E-Verify for ANY Benefit!!!
#4. Stop the Underground Economy!!!
#5. End Birthright Citizenship for Illegals!!!
......and make it retroactive!!!
#6. End Chain Migration!!!
#7. Make English our Official Language!!!
#8. Cut Off Federal Funds to Sanctuary Cities!!

NOTHING MORE!!! NOTHING LESS!!!


Buzzm1 on Oct 19, 2008 at 12:34:21 said:

ENFORCE OUR LAWS AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION!!!

THERE WILL BE NO AMNESTY!!!

OUR ACCEPTABLE IMMIGRATION REFORM

#1. Secure Our Borders!!!
#2. Mandate E-Verify for ALL Employees!!!
#3. Mandate E-Verify for ANY Benefit!!!
#4. Stop the Underground Economy!!!
#5. End Birthright Citizenship for Illegals!!!
......and make it retroactive!!!
#6. End Chain Migration!!!
#7. Make English our Official Language!!!
#8. Cut Off Federal Funds to Sanctuary Cities!!

NOTHING MORE!!! NOTHING LESS!!!


Buzzm1 on Oct 19, 2008 at 12:29:11 said:

ENFORCE OUR LAWS AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION!!!

THERE WILL BE NO AMNESTY!!!

OUR ACCEPTABLE IMMIGRATION REFORM

#1. Secure Our Borders!!!
#2. Mandate E-Verify for ALL Employees!!!
#3. Mandate E-Verify for ANY Benefit!!!
#4. Stop the Underground Economy!!!
#5. End Birthright Citizenship for Illegals!!!
......and make it retroactive!!!
#6. End Chain Migration!!!
#7. Make English our Official Language!!!
#8. Cut Off Federal Funds to Sanctuary Cities!!

NOTHING MORE!!! NOTHING LESS!!!


Buzzm1 on Oct 19, 2008 at 12:26:56 said:

WE HAVE BEEN INVADED!!!

SOUTHWEST BORDER APPREHENSIONS (Source DHS/CBP)
1987--1,190,488------1995--1,394,554------2003----905,065
1988--1,008,145------1996--1,649,986------2004--1,139,282
1989----954,243------1997--1,412,953------2005--1,189,108
19FACT: In the last 22 years, over 26 million illegals, have been apprehended, crossing our Southwest Border.

THE PROBLEM IS: Less than 1, out of 4 illegals, were estimated to have been apprehended, while crossing the border, into our United States.90--1,169,939------1998--1,555,776------2006--1,071,972
1991--1,197,875------1999--1,537,000------2007----858,638
1992--1,258,482------2000--1,643,679------2008----660,288 (08/31)
1993--1,327,259------2001--1,235,718
1994--1,094,717------2002----929,809



Mind boggling, isn't it.

According to the U.S. Immigration Service another 6 million illegals in this country are visa overstays. That is, they got a visa legally in their home country, they came here to visit and then they never left.

In the last 22 years, there have been another 4 million anchor babies born to illegals. Anchor babies are now being born at a rate of 350-400 thousand per year in our United States. All at our expense!!

Then the ANCHOR BABIES qualify for welfare, food stamps, section-8 housing, all at our expense.

American Taxpayers are getting screwed, over, and over, and over, again!!!

Each illegal immigrant, on average, costs taxpayers $9,000 PER YEAR, over, and above, anything they might contribute in taxes!!!


cree blakeman on Oct 19, 2008 at 12:26:36 said:

Quit moaning and go home!
Who is the real victim here? Me, an American Citizen! Because I'm the one paying for you, Ms. Illegal alien to live here illegally. Quit playing the victim. Be accountable for your actions.. do you even know what ACCOUNTABILITY means? Go home because I'm tired of your moaning and groaning. You are the one that came here illegally and now you play the victim .... "I'm scared".... you made the choice to come here so go home! I'm so sick of you illegal aliens being here in my country.


Buzzm1 on Oct 19, 2008 at 12:24:41 said:

Americans are the victims, not the illegals who don't have any right to be in our country.


Brittanicus on Oct 19, 2008 at 12:23:54 said:

MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD BEFORE NOVEMBER..

AMERICAN RESISTANCE, a anti-illegal immigration organization collected data from Tucson sector Border Patrol union local 2544, who have estimated from available data their are 37,533,523 illegal aliens in our nation.

Since January 1, 2008, 2,923,534 have crossed the border? So you must ask yourself, how has our own government reported we have only 12. million illegal immigrants in the country?

In April 2003, Georgia state Senator - and national board member of MALDEF - Sam Zamarripa told the Georgia state senate that there were 20 million illegals in the U.S. at the time.

2007 Rasmussen poll showing that 77 percent of voters oppose granting illegal immigrants driver’s licenses. After 9/11--have Obama and the Liberal-Democrats completely crazy.

Read what Rep. Tom Tancredo (CO) Interview at YALE UNIVERSITY about the illegal immigrant occupation of our country: www.thepolitic.org/content/view/109/ IT WILL CHANGE YOUR MIND ABOUT THIS EVER INCREASING PLAGUE.

Some five million fraudulent home mortgages are in the hands of illegal aliens, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The middle class already overburdened with war appropriation funds, is still force to pay for the education, free health-care and Federal, state welfare handouts for illegal criminals and millions of illegal alien families. If the millions here get a free pass to AMNESTY, we will be flooded with even more foreign nationals.

They will be able to access Social Security, SSI, SDI, Health care, Education, Section 8 housing, Food Stamps. That is just Federal? Then they can extract from the legal population State and county welfare funds. This is called---CHAIN MIGRATION.

Then those millions will be able to bring in their extended families. The sick, disabled, mentally handicapped that we will pay for, because low income people get all their Federal and state taxes back?

SIGN UP FOR THE SAVE ACT(H.R.408 enforcement 'ONLY' law at www.numbersusa.com .

SIGN JUDICIAL WATCH, A LEGAL ORGANIZATIONS PETITION, TO RESCIND ALL 'SANCTUARY CITIES & STATES. www.sanctuarybusters.org / source.

www.numbersusa.com to Petition the SAVE ACT. For immigration facts not propaganda or lies,

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Americans have gotten pretty tired of the same "poor, poor victim" propoganda these criminals and their enablers keep pumping out. I don't care what their "stories" are, they don't belong here and need to leave! Why not write about American families hurt by illegal immigration?

Americans want a better life for our kids, does anyone care? Media stories sympathizing with illegal aliens are a slap in the face to law-abiding Americans and tend to piss us off.