By JENS MANUEL KROGSTAD, Courier Staff Writer
POSTVILLE --- Nine months after an immigration raid devastated the town, faith communities in Postville gathered Thursday night to press for comprehensive immigration reform.

About 50 people, including many women still wearing electronic tracking bracelets because of their arrest, sang hymns and prayed during an hourlong vigil at Community Presbyterian Church. Organizers said the orthodox Jewish community also joined in prayer across town, though the service was closed to the public. A leading Jewish family in town, the Rubashkins, own the kosher meatpacking plant raided by federal immigration officials last May.

Faith leaders urged people to take action and pressure elected officials to address the country's broken immigration system. The services were part of a series of vigils held this month across the country.

"We have been the silent majority for too long. (Change) is going to start with us making a little bit of noise," said Paul Rael, director of Hispanic ministries at St. Bridget's Catholic Church.

Since the raid, Rael has been speaking across the country, from New York City to Elkader, to spread the story of Postville and push for comprehensive immigration reform. He said that means undocumented workers in the country should have the opportunity to obtain a legal status, if only through guest worker visas.

Besides the raid in Postville, his best argument for the need for reform, he said, is a personal story: He knows someone who has been waiting since 1995 for the government to process a visa application.

He and others again begged Iowa senators Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley to visit the town. The senators' aides have spoken with town leaders, but Rael called the absence of the senators "shameful."

The Rev. Steve Brackett of St. Paul Lutheran Church called on Iowa's elected leaders to visit and "finally have the courage to finally do something" about immigration reform.

Olivia Vega Ortiz performed a corrido, a type of narrative song, which she called, "Triste Redada de Mayo," or "The Sad May Raid." In grief and sadness, she said, she wrote the song two weeks after the raid resulted in her 19-year-old son's arrest and five-month imprisonment.

Ortiz had just finished her shift at the plant and her son, Ulyses, had just arrived for work when hundreds of federal agents surrounded the building. The opening line of the song sets the scene for the fateful morning.

"I'm going to sing a song about the story of a little town, the 12th of May 'la migra' on Postville fell."

Ortiz said she first sang the corrido to her son on Oct. 12 when most of those jailed after the raid were released. The memories of the day flooded back to her son.

"He cried. He told me, 'Mom, that's exactly what happened,'" she said.

Contact Jens Manuel Krogstad at (319) 291-1580 or jens.krogstad@wcfcourier.com.

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