Largest ever immigration raid creates turmoil in Iowa town
BEKAH PORTER:
POSTVILLE, Iowa -- Mona Kilborn holds her sign high -- "An Illegal Alien Killed My Mother."
Her voice carries as she tells her story, and a crowd draws near. "Let me describe the terror I felt when I woke up to find my mother dead and my husband bathed in blood," she says.
She arose from unconsciousness in 2007 to discover that an illegal immigrant ran a stop sign and smashed her van. Her mother died. Her husband suffered a broken back. The Hispanic driver possessed no license, and her criminal file showed prior problems.
Two blocks down, Roselia Ramirez grips her own poster, reading, "To those who say illegal immigrants take their jobs: Now that I'm not working at Agriprocessors, why aren't you?"
She speaks no English and turns to a family friend to translate what she feels. "A lot of sadness. A lot of pain," she says. "I am a human being, just like everybody else."
She lifts her pant leg to reveal the electronic device that monitors her whereabouts. She awaits a court date and deportation to Mexico. Both Kilborn and Ramirez pace Postville's pavement, along with hundreds of others responding to the nation's largest immigration raid, with one purpose -- to initiate change. ...
The town remains tucked within the comforts of acre upon acre of cropland, and if neon highway markers did not promise "Postville -- 7 miles," it would be easy to wonder if the highway led anywhere.
Yet on May 12, the buses knew their destination.
One after another, they rolled in, carrying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Hours later, they left the community of about 2,200, taking with them about 400 undocumented workers.
The raid at Agriprocessors Inc. set records. It was the nation's largest crackdown on illegal immigration, and it happened at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant.
A majority of the 390 detained employees claimed Guatemalan and Mexican citizenship, although some came from the Ukraine and Israel. Most were charged with identification theft and unlawful use of a Social Security card, and more than 30 already have been deported, according to Postville service groups.
On Sunday, these numbers were decried as a badge of shame.
Almost 2,000 people lined Postville's streets to join or protest the Interfaith Prayer Walk organized by several service organizations wanting to help those affected by the raid. Some came in tour buses from Chicago and the Twin Cities. Others flew from New Jersey. More still drove from Wisconsin. READ IT ALL
