June 20, 2008

Agriprocessors turns to homeless for help
By Ben Harris

NEW YORK (JTA)—In an effort to restore lagging production at its plant in Postville, Iowa, the country’s largest kosher meat producer has been hiring workers from homeless shelters in Texas to replace employees detained in a massive federal immigration raid last month.

According to a spokesman for the meat producer Agriprocessors, workers are recruited by a firm in Amarillo, Texas, and sent to Postville. Once there, they are processed by Jacobson Staffing, a Des Moines-based company that screens them for drugs and alcohol and ensures they are legally permitted to work in the United States.

Several officials in Postville say the new arrivals have created problems for the town.

Postville Police Chief Michael Halse told JTA that his officers had arrested four plant workers for disorderly conduct this week.

Father Paul Ouderkirk, leader of the local Catholic church, which has played a lead role in helping former workers and their families after last month’s raid, said a mentally challenged woman from Texas had come to his church looking for help with prescription medications.

And in an interview Friday with Postville’s local radio station, Diana Morris said she spent three days on a bus from Amarillo only to discover she was expected to live with 10 men in a four-bedroom house that had no electricity or hot water.

[b]“Amarillo’s homeless problem has become Postville’s homeless problem,â€