ICE raid changes Iowa town
By Drovers news staff
| Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The small town of Postville Iowa has changed considerably since federal immigration authorities raided its local meatpacking plant last spring, according to a CNN report. On May 12, about 900 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided the local meat processing plant, Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meat packer. ICE removed about 400 illegal immigrants from the plant, and about 300 more who were not working at the time fled the town, which has a population of about 2,400. Most of the workers who were removed were from Mexico and Guatemala, and were well established in the community, according to the article. The plant, still struggling to build production back to capacity, has since hired immigrants from Somalia, Russia, Ukraine, and the Pacific island nation of Palau, changing the ethnic makeup of the community. It's a town that's been turned "topsy turvy," says the town’s mayor, Bob Penrod, quoted in the story. "It's been nothing but a freaky nightmare since May."
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