Thread: Protesters gather in Postville

Protesters gather in Postville
ASSOCIATED PRESS • July 27, 2008

An immigration rally has kicked off in Postville with protesters shouting "Si se puede," translated in English as "yes, we can."

Hundreds of people marched through the small Iowa town of about 2,200 today.

Busloads of people from Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul and other nearby cities came to protest a federal immigration raid of the Agriprocessors plant in May.

The march, which kicked off with a religious ceremony, is expected to reach the plant on the outskirts of town.

Marchers were met by a counter-protest of about 75 anti-immigration activists.

Nearly 400 people were arrested during the raid of the plant.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/p ... /-1/NEWS04

I think ICE should have checked the imm. status of everyone of those 2,200 as I honestly feel they do not have the same rights to freedom of speech as citizens do. They should not have any tax dollars either to help them survive here as criminals. And hopefully, these pro IA protestors had a proper permit, otherwise they are guilty of another crime.

Originally Posted by vortex

I think ICE should have checked the imm. status of everyone of those 2,200 as I honestly feel they do not have the same rights to freedom of speech as citizens do. They should not have any tax dollars either to help them survive here as criminals. And hopefully, these pro IA protestors had a proper permit, otherwise they are guilty of another crime.

Hundreds of people marched through the small Iowa town of about 2,200 today.

Oops! Sorry! Well then, ICE has an easier job checking the imm. status of all of them.

Freedom Folks out of Chicago went to Postville. They don't have an update on their blog yet -but check later! Right now they've got some pictures they took of the town yesterday.

Seventy-five Americans were there -that's good. Although the reporter forgot to write anti ILLEGAL immigration activist.

http://freedomfolks.com/

The seventy five could have been much more effective if banners with a national website were invcluded. Most people do not live near to Postville, Iowa or participate in demonstrations. Most people do favor immigration enforcement, oppose amnesty and have computers with which they could participate actively online with NumbersUSA. They probably do not know about it yet. Events like this should be used to broadcast knowledge of how to fight illegal immigration.

This wasn't the only thing happening in Pottsville this week. Check out this pre-protest happening.

http://www.kcci.com/news/16994631/detail.html

Suspect Wanted In Two Postville Stabbings
Man Believed To Be Driving Minivan With Illinois Tags

POSTED: 8:12 pm CDT July 25, 2008

Somehow I don't think Norberto was with the anti-illegal immigration crowd.

Originally Posted by Richard

The seventy five could have been much more effective if banners with a national website were invcluded. Most people do not live near to Postville, Iowa or participate in demonstrations. Most people do favor immigration enforcement, oppose amnesty and have computers with which they could participate actively online with NumbersUSA. They probably do not know about it yet. Events like this should be used to broadcast knowledge of how to fight illegal immigration.

If all of the 1,000's of anti-illegal immigration groups could unite under one common banner, with the purpose of focusing their energy, to fight one battle after another, then so much more could be accomplished.

I see Numbersusa as being very directed towards fighting major congressional battles, while I personally feel that serially winning the smaller, city,and county, battles, as extremely important to winning the overall war. What we have now are 1,000's of groups, with most of them effectively, less than 50 dedicated members, each with their own, mostly local, battles, to fight. With the least bit of cohesive effort, and the assistance of a few others, these local battles could easily be won, while presently most are stalemates, at best. Winning is contagious and breeds infectious enthusiasm going into the larger battles. If we can win the local battles, then we can win the county battles, and then we can win the the state battles, and be well on our way to winning the national battles.

Collectively we far outnumber all of pro-illegal groups, but they are far more cohesive, and organized, than we are. That's the reason that they are even remotely successful fighting what should be an impossible battle. We have right, and the law, on our side, and still they stand up to us. Of couse, it certainly helps their cause that they have the business interests, and money, on their side. Only numbers can overcome them.

RELATED STORY
Hundreds protest immigration raid in small-town America

Jul 27 11:20 PM US/Eastern


Led by 43 women with electronic tracking bracelets on their ankles, hundreds of people from around the country marched down main street here Sunday to protest the biggest immigration raid in US history at a kosher meat plant that has split this tiny Iowa town asunder.
Released from jail so they can take care of their families, the 43 women out front were among 390 mainly Guatemalan and Mexican workers arrested by federal agents May 12 at the Agriprocessors meat factory and charged with identity theft.
It was the biggest raid on a workplace in US history, as part of the government's crackdown on illegal immigration, a hot-button issue nationally three months ahead of the US presidential election.

The demonstrators marched through Postville's tree-lined streets past Jewish stores and Mexican restaurants, drowning out the shouts of about 100 anti-immigration protesters with chants of "No more raids!"

The arrests have torn families apart, devastated local businesses, especially those serving Hispanics, and left what was before the raid the country's largest kosher meat processing plant operating at only 50 percent capacity.

Maria Laura Gomez, a former plant worker, has looked after her nephew for months while her mother sits in prison.

"My prayer is the words here today will be heard in the halls of power," she said. "I see the pain in my nephew's eyes when he visits his mother in jail."

The protest is not only directed against the anti-immigration movement, but also the meat plant itself, which over the years has left a long trail of workplace safety and environmental violations, including amputations and spilling 40,000 gallons of turkey blood into a nearby stream.

Hundreds from the Jewish communities of Chicago and Minneapolis drove for hours to Postville to publicly decry the plant's owners, who are accused of abusing the workers.

Before the march, which snaked its way to the main entrance of the plant, religious leaders held a prayer vigil in English, Spanish and Hebrew.

Listening to the service on loudspeakers with an overflow crowd on the lawn of Postville's Catholic church, Abbey Romanek, from Chicago, said the plant is a black eye on her Jewish faith.

"I'm embarrassed and ashamed at the way Agriprocessors has treated its workers," she said. "I don't think its kosher meat. I think they're pulling a farce on the Jews of this country."

Two supervisors at the meat plant have been arrested, and the plant's owners remain under investigation.

An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants inside the United States has become a key issue for Democratic and Republican White House contenders Barack Obama and John McCain.

Both are wooing the vote of the legal Hispanic community of about 45 million people, or 15 percent of the US population.

In this small but extraordinarily diverse town of 2,300, the crackdown has less to do with votes than with the fragile social fabric.

Although illegal, the workers and their families were an important segment of the community.

School officials anticipate many empty seats when classes resume in the fall, with students' mothers and fathers now in jail.

Town leaders said that legal workers have meanwhile taken over the vacant jobs, but many are single men with no ties to the community.

And the Postville police said the town's relatively quiet evenings are a thing of the past. Now, they regularly respond to calls of public intoxication and drunken brawls on Friday nights.

"The Hispanic families are the ones who make our community and our schools," said Postville Mayor Robert Penrod.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1
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They are playing the "Anchor Baby" card, which is more destructive than anything - in light of the fact that the 14th Amendment is being desecrated! This is the PRIMARY reason we have become a third world dump..the manufacturing of illiterate, third world phony American citizens!!! Poverty begets poverty; illiteracy begets illiteracy. Three out of four babies born in the US are hispanic... and most of them are from parents who are third world peasants!

How about sending ICE into all the "Clinicas" to check the legal status of pregnant women??? We could save a lot of time, trouble, and money if we deported them BEFORE they manufacture the phony American citizens! If we wait until something is done to repeal the 'birthright citizenship' laws...we will wait til hell freezes over!

there aren't 45 million legal hispanics in our country, just possible around 30 million or a littel more. The difference are illegal aliens.