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08-21-2008, 05:22 PM #1
Postville's population remains in constant flux
Postville's population remains in constant flux
Immigrants' exodus is countered by migrants traveling thousands of miles in search of jobs
By BEKAH PORTER TH staff writer
A Hispanic woman wears an ankle monitor at Saint Bridget Parish in Postville, Iowa. The woman was detained during an immigration raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant, but she was released to take care of her children.
POSTVILLE, Iowa -- Three are gone. Seven more have purchased plane tickets so they can leave by month's end.
Last week, when a federal judge allowed 10 women to return to their home countries of Guatemala and Mexico, he accelerated the exodus that continues to haunt Postville's population of 2,300.
Some leave willingly. The 10 women from the community requested the judge grant their passage home.
Some leave because law requires it. At least 30 residents have been deported because they entered and worked in America illegally.
Another 300 are serving five-month prison sentences, and upon completion, they, too, will be sent to their native lands.
And several dozen additional undocumented workers have slipped out of town unseen, hoping to avoid the repercussions that almost 400 of their co-workers faced when Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials staged the nation's biggest raid on the country's largest kosher meatpacking plant.
Part of the dip in population is counterbalanced by the steady influx of migrant workers looking to find a Advertisement
home in the community known as "Hometown to the World."
As former workers at Agriprocessors Inc. leave, other stream in.
After Texas workers came in to fill the open jobs, an estimated 300 Somali workers followed. Now, independent recruiting companies from Pacific islands as far as 8,000 miles away are trying to send workers to the plant, which is operating with about half the number of employees it needs.
"Agriprocessors has not reached out to any island workers," said Menachem Lubinsky, a spokesman for the company. "There may be individual recruiters who may be trying to broker arrangements."
Some islands, such as Palau, where recruiters have mentioned Postville as a possible work-force destination, are eligible to live and work in the U.S., according to the Department of Labor.
"They are legal, so if they were skilled and qualified and came looking for jobs, I imagine Agriprocessors would help them," Lubinsky said. "It was the same situation with the Somalis. They were never promised work. They were just told that if they qualified, they could work here. A couple of them stuck. Many didn't."
But besides the old workers leaving and new workers coming, an entirely different population remains. About 20 to 25 detainees linger in a legal limbo that has them unable to work because of their illegal status and unable to leave the country and return home because of pending deportation hearing dates.
After they were discovered at the meatpacking plant, the women were released for "humanitarian" reasons -- meaning they had children or others dependant upon their care. However, they had to wear a monitoring device on their ankle. Unable to leave the country yet unable to earn a living, they rely heavily on financial and food assistance from many charities and community members, including Agriprocessors, who supplies the local food pantry with hundreds of pounds of meat each week.
Immigration lawyer Sonia Parras Konrad represents many of the women living in such a state.
"Beyond the physical repercussions of wearing the bracelets, we have the emotional repercussions," she said. "They have been ostracized in their own community, in their own town. You can see the ankle bracelet and the stigma it carries."
Konrad said that some of the women wearing the bracelets have been approached on the streets by men who said they would pay to have sex with the women in exchange for money.
"They knew they were short on money," Konrad said. "That is extremely embarrassing for anybody. These women had their children with them, and to be asked that, it's like, you have to be kidding."
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokesman Tim Counts commended the work of service and volunteer organizations supporting the detainees, but said nobody questions the same situations when an American is involved.
"What about a U.S. citizen who loses his job because he was caught embezzling? What about somebody who was caught cheating on his taxes and can no longer work to provide for his family? How do those people cope? Well, nobody ever seems to ask that question," he said. "Any disruption should be put at the feet of the people who violated the law. All these individuals knew when they entered the country illegally what the potential consequences were for violating federal law, and the situation they find themselves in is of their own making."
The difference between being deported and leaving voluntarily is that those without criminal charges can apply legally for citizenship in the future.
Konrad said her other clients facing deportation are looking to remain in the U.S., and that their intention is "not to flee."
She has requested her clients be able to pay an estimated $1,500 bond to remove the monitoring devices.
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08-21-2008, 05:31 PM #2
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Sounds like Agriprocessors is worthy of another raid, just to make sure.
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08-21-2008, 05:43 PM #3"What about a U.S. citizen who loses his job because he was caught embezzling? What about somebody who was caught cheating on his taxes and can no longer work to provide for his family? How do those people cope? Well, nobody ever seems to ask that question," he said. "Any disruption should be put at the feet of the people who violated the law. All these individuals knew when they entered the country illegally what the potential consequences were for violating federal law, and the situation they find themselves in is of their own making."
Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)
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