After the Raid
On May 12 nearly one-third of the people in Postville, Iowa, were detained in a federal immigration raid at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant. The raid made headlines for a few days, but the repercussions continue. Nigel Duara of The Des Moines Register describes the impact on the community in a thought-provoking report, "New Hires Bring New Problems to Postville."
Ten weeks after the largest workplace immigration raid in U.S. history, this is the new Postville:
Drunken brawls. A food pantry that is almost bare. Women afraid to walk alone at night.
Postville is now home to hundreds of men and women from tough towns and tough lives, brought to this northeast Iowa community by recruiters who entered homeless shelters in dusty Texas border towns offering $15 and a one-way bus ticket.
The impact is evident: New laborers are changing Postville. The Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant, the site of the immigration raid, once employed men and women with families. Now, its workers are mostly young, single people with no stake in the community and nothing to lose....
The laborers brought with them the promise of helping the plant get back on its feet.
They also brought the dangers associated with an influx of uprooted people from the margins of society to the fragile ecosystem of this small, agrarian town.
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