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May 14, 2008
Postville Follow-Up: FAIR’s National Field Director Reports from Scene of Largest ICE Enforcement Raid A day after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency conducted its largest raid on a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, FAIR’s national field director, Susan Tully, visited Postville to assess the situation. The raid occurred on Monday. 
During her trip to Postville, Susan interviewed local residents and officials. She found local townspeople hopeful that the enforcement effort to restore their town to some sense of normalcy, and that the companies that have been exploiting illegal workers and burdening the town with crippling costs would be punished. Susan interviewed town officials who have been struggling to cope with the impact of mass illegal immigration. Susan also encountered an advocacy network dedicated to obstructing the enforcement of immigration laws. The Illegal Alien Advocacy Network At the center of the effort to provide sanctuary for the illegal aliens is St. Bridget’s Catholic Church. According to Sister Mary, the church heard rumors of an impending ICE raid on Friday and began to prepare. Declaring that the church is “a safe home” for illegal immigrants and that “people have human rights above any laws,” St. Bridget’s is currently sheltering about 250 people. They are also actively assisting illegal aliens in obtaining legal representation through Iowa Legal Aid. Town Officials Postville officials have been coping with the growing illegal alien population for the past 20 years, but have done little to remedy the situation. Speaking to Police Chief Michael Halse, local law enforcement was fully aware that most of the people working at the packing plant were illegal, but the town did not participate in any enforcement efforts, including Monday’s ICE action. 
Teachers at the local school who spoke to Susan told her that the school has been struggling to provide bilingual services to a growing number of non-English-speaking students. None of the teachers wished to be identified for fear of reprisal. But even the teachers were not aware of just how many of the kids and their families were in the country illegally. Comments
"According to Sister Mary, the church heard rumors of an impending ICE raid on Friday and began to prepare. Declaring that the church is “a safe home” for illegal immigrants and that “people have human rights above any laws,” I agree with this, however crossing the US border is NOT one of those basic human rights. Posted by: Dave A on May 14, 2008 05:22 PM Illegal immigration is against the law in the United States. Illegal immigrants are criminals. They have broken existing U.S. Immigration law. Where is the debate Democrats and greed Republicans constantly speak of. If you want to change the law , go lobby and pay of politicians as you crooks always do. But until then, all illegal immigrants and all illegal immigration enablers are criminals--as defined by existing immigration law. There is NO DEBATE, anymore than whether I have to pay taxes or not on my income. Posted by: Bobby on May 14, 2008 05:23 PM THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TOWN OFFICIALS LOOK THE OTHER WAY, AND IGNORE THE CITIZENS... YOU GET OVERRUN BY ILLEGAL ALIENS, AND THE COSTS AND THE BURDEN ON SOCIAL SERVICES SKYROCKET... Posted by: American Me on May 14, 2008 05:34 PM 12 MILLION MORE TOO GO! Posted by: Independent Voter on May 14, 2008 05:44 PM COMMENT: THE WAY I SEE THIS IS THEY BROKE THE LAW (THE CHURCH). ABBETTING ILLEGALS IS A FELON. CRIME? THE LAW IS THE LAW EXCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO ILLEGLAS, THEN IT CHANGES? READ.TITLE 8--SECTION 1325 OF THE U.S.CODE. HURRY UP, OR THE GOVERNMENT WILL TAKE IT OFF THE LAW BOOKS Posted by: SUSAN MARIANO on May 14, 2008 06:11 PM Yesterday in the first installment of this story, [The source also reported that some employees were running a methamphetamine lab in the plant and were bringing weapons into the plant, which employs about 1,000. He said he was fired after he told his superiors.] Weapons and a meth lab?! Whaaaattt!! ICE has enough to deport every ILLEGAL ALIEN just for being here illegally but the employers "have" to be arrested for the meth lab (unless it was dismantled beforehand). Are they producing the drugs inside the St. Bridget’s Catholic Church now? I still cannot figure out how the police department, school officials and others never confronted these ILLEGALS in their neighborhoods for 20 years. “DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL”, I presume. The fired employee has a hell of a lawsuit at the very least for his termination, he should be the town’s hero! It seems no one (even the police) had the guts to open his or her mouth until this red-blooded American spoke up! He certainly saved the town’s taxpayers a bundle. Posted by: United Statesian on May 14, 2008 06:30 PM The police chief and the city counsel are guilty of dereliction of duty and should be removed from office! This problem was know as far back as 20 years and the city counsel did nothing about it. Smells like corruption to me!! Posted by: Bob Hubble on May 14, 2008 06:31 PM First and foremose, THANK YOU for the follow-up. This is the first time that I can think of that anybody has given any sort of follow-up to anything like this or of this scale. Secondly I think the Catholic Church should lose their tax-exempt status for harboring criminals and aiding and abetting criminal activity. HUMAN RIGHTS - let them go back to their home country and fight for human rights - and you can take the Catholic Church with you. For 20 years the town officials have turned a blind eye. These people have been there for 20 years and I am sure they have dug themselves in pretty well. The Chief of Police should be arrested for failing to uphold the laws he swore to uphold. They didn't say his name but, somehow I get the feeling he has a Hispanic background. Sorry - but when someone in that sort of position does that then they are usually either exploiting or profiting from the illegal immigration. The teachers should teach English. Kids can't understand them - tough! Learn the language and to hell with this bilingual crap! Our tax dollars are being wasted on crap like this! Same with our ballots! Can't read English - learn it! We here in California have our ballot information printed in about 10 different languages - should be only one! The information said the teachers did not say anything for fear of repraisal - isn't that against the law? That would be a great civil rights lawsuit! Posted by: Sick 'n Tired on May 14, 2008 06:53 PM Kudos for iCE. the pro illegal immigrant people never consider the costs to taxpayers. Posted by: ALOHA on May 14, 2008 07:38 PM It was about time INS did something. Before the Unions were busted in the packing plants in the "70's the beginning wage was $12.00 an hour. Starting wage at Tyson's in Waterloo is $9.50 an hour and Agriprocessors was paying $5.00. In nearby Waukon the convenience stores are advertizing for workers and they are offering $7.50 an hour for a part time worker. Across northeast Iowa that is the wage rate that is being offered to part time workers (high school kids). Anybody that is paying less than that can only be getting workers who are drug users, bums, or illegal aliens. If you want to know why there is much meat being recalled all you have to do is look at the quality of workers at these plants. Posted by: Steve Van Helten on May 15, 2008 08:50 AM The Catholic Church should be stripped of its tax exempt status if it continues to interfere with enforcement of American immigration law. It should also be brought up on criminal charges for aiding and abetting, as well as harboring illegal immigrants in this country. We cannot allow any religious organization to interfere with, or determine what the laws of this land should or shouldn’t be. Isn’t this what the “separation of church and state” was designed to achieve? Posted by: melena29 on May 15, 2008 09:10 AM Some one ought to tell Sister Mary at St. Bridgetts Church that the Constitution of the United States does not grant them any power to provide sanctuary to anybody who is breaking the law. ICE should go kick the door of that church open and arrest any criminal illegal immigrants that might be there. If they find that the church is harboring criminal illegal immigrants, the church should be charged with Felony Obstruction of Justice charges. No Mercy Granted - AMEN Posted by: Brian H. on May 15, 2008 11:40 AM The Catholic Church is disgusting in their promotion of illegal activity. They should be punished and the illegals sent home. Posted by: Born American on May 15, 2008 12:08 PM THE SCHOOLS DON"T NEED A BI-LINGUAL ANCHOR AROUND THEIR NECKS About 50% of all American kids aren't graduating from high school and we're suppose to take time out to teach illegal anchor babies English? Posted by: Softwarengineer on May 15, 2008 01:15 PM Perhaps the good sisters would agree that we should just make the e-verify program mandatory for everyone and clean up the "documents" that someone can use to get a job (ie. make them tamperproof and biometric) so we would not have to do this any more. Posted by: hugo on May 15, 2008 02:10 PM Per NumbersUSA, Sen. Feinstein is trying to attach amnesty for ag workers onto the Iraq Supplemental Spending Bill. Please call the senators listed on NumbersUSA home page and tell them to oppose this amnesty!! Posted by: populist on May 15, 2008 02:11 PM I would still like someone to answer my question - preferably someone in the Mexican government - What would your government do to me if I sneaked across your border, changed my name, stole someone's identity, stole someone else's social security number (or the Mexican equivelant) and gave fraudulent papers to my employer? Would I be able to get a free education for myself or my children? Would I be entitled to free medical care? food stamps? home loans? the right to wave my USA flag? March and demand that the Mexican government owed me the same rights as Mexican citizens? Tell me, Presidente Calderon, what would your answer be? Posted by: June on May 15, 2008 02:19 PM The town officials were not put into office by the act of some almighty. Mention was made that this illegal immigration has been an ongoing process for some twenty years. What happens? Do the voters give Posted by: willow on May 15, 2008 03:27 PM OK, it's nice to see this happening, but when are we going to get enforcement in Mexifornia? Some of us Americans still live here. Posted by: viva la migra on May 15, 2008 03:57 PM It'll will be a cold day when the Catholic Church gets a dime from me again. Never! Posted by: USA1 on May 15, 2008 05:29 PM i find it strange they target this place and not all the Chinese take out places in the contry or in Dearborn Posted by: impeachbush on May 15, 2008 10:19 PM I left a note with my last donation to the Catholic Church in their collection plate. Stating that I will no longer give money to any organization the fuels illegal immigration and who plays a blind eye to the child rapist priests. Posted by: Peter on May 19, 2008 01:14 PM |