Predominantly German-AmericanGerman and Norwegian-AmericanNorwegian for much of its existence, a group of Hasidic Jews of the Lubavitch movement from New York purchased a Kosher slaughterhouse there in 1987. Since then, Postville has seen a large influx of many peoples, especially Ukrainians, Russians, Mexicans, Guatemalans and Filipinos. The town has been the focus of much attention in seeing the Postville natives interact with the very different newcomers of their town. A book on the town, Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America (ISBN 0-15-100652-0) was written by Stephen G. Bloom, a professor at the University of Iowa. Although there has rarely existed outright hostility between the Postville natives and newcomers, there has often been tension between them, especially among the Hasidic community. In September 1991, a Jew from Postville robbed a convenience store in Decorah, Iowa, seriously wounding the clerk. This event drew a lot of negative attention towards the new Jewish community moving into Postville. Another attempted murder within the Hasidic community and a murder within in Hispanic community in 2000 furthered disenchantment between Postville natives and newcomers. Other religious differences have existed as well. For example, the decision of putting up Christmas decorations in the downtown district proved to be more difficult than before, and was a major argument on the city council in 2002. Postville was also the boyhood home of 1946 Nobel laureate John R. Mott. The name of the Orthodox JudaismOrthodox synagogue in Postville is Congregation Ahavat Israel. The main Latino restaurant is Sabor Latino. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postville%2C_Iowa

On May 12, 2008, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed a raid of the Agriprocessors Inc. kosher slaughterhouse and meat packing plant, in Postville, which ICE officials stated was the "largest single-site operation of its kind in American history." The investigation had started more than a year earlier; and raid preparations had begun in December 2007. Local members of the community reported that they were becoming suspicious of a possible immigration raid as early as one month prior to the actual event. These suspicions grew even stronger a week before the raids, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took over the National Cattle Congress grounds, a 60-acre cattle fairground an hour and a half away from Postville, for “training purposes.” Although 697 arrest warrants were issued, 389 were arrested, of whom an estimated 290 were Guatemalan, the overwhelming majority of which were Mayan indigenous peoples, 93 were Mexican, four were Ukrainian, and three were Israelis but were not seen in court. 76 of those arrested were women and 12 were juveniles. The case became of historic interest for several reasons. Guatemalan Mayan activists have pointed out that their community has been particularly targeted for workplace raids. The largest workplace raid prior to that time had occurred in March 2007, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. At that time, 361 workers were arrested, the majority of whom were Guatemalan Mayans. Yet Guatemalans form a relatively small portion of the undocumented population in the U.S. The case was also controversial because of the legal approach used by the government, which criminally prosecuted 302 of the arrested workers, although only five of those arrested had any criminal record. The government charged the defendants with "aggravated identity theft" but then offered a uniform plea agreement, offering to reduce the charges to "knowingly using a false Social Security number," with a 5 month jail term, deportation without a hearing, and 3 years of supervised release. The defendants were then advised that if they plead not guilty, they would be held for 6 to 8 months before their trial, risk a 2-year minimum sentence, and would be deported regardless of whether they won or lost at trial. Given this legal strategy, the judge was not free to depart from the sentence provided for by their Plea Agreement. Because it was a binding 11(C)(1)(c) Plea Agreement, he had to accept it or reject it as a whole. But if he rejected it, he would be exposing the defendants to a trial against their will. Had the original charge been use of a false social security number, the judge would have had the discretion to impose a sentence of 0 - 6 months. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the outcome of the cases was as follows: • 230 defendants were sentenced to five months in prison and three years of supervision for using false identification to obtain employment after admitting to using an actual person's identity; • 30 defendants were sentenced to five months in prison and three years of supervision for falsely using a social security number or card after admitting to using an actual person's social security number; • eight defendants were sentenced to five months in prison and three years of supervision for illegally re-entering the United States after being deported; • two defendants were sentenced to 12 months and a day in prison, and three years of supervision for using false identification to obtain employment after admitting to using an actual person's identity; • 21 defendants were sentenced to five years of probation for using false identification to obtain employment using fraudulent documents that did not belong to an actual person; • two defendants were sentenced to five years of probation for falsely using a social security number or card where the number did not belong to an actual person; • four defendants were sentenced to five years of probation for illegally re-entering the United States after being deported. [See Reference No. 10] The ICE Search Warrant Application stated that on February 20, 2008, ICE agents received social security "no match" information for 737 employees, including 147 whose numbers were confirmed by the Social Security Administration as never being issued to a person, and 590 whose numbers were valid, but did not match the name of the employee reported by Agriprocessors. This means that the workers could not have falsely used the identity of an actual person's name and Social Security Number. Using a search of the FTC Consumer Sentinel Network for the reporting of incidents of identity theft, they had found one one social security number used at Agriprocessors whose legal holder had reported his/her identity as being stolen. According to critics, this means that the government originally filed charges they knew were lacking in a factual basis. The federal offense of identity theft is applicable to a person who “knowingly uses a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit any unlawful activity or felony” [18 USC §1028(a)]. In this case, the defendants used the Social Security cards to obtain work, which is not an unlawful activity. The detainees were held and the court proceedings were took place at the National Cattle Congress grounds. Initial appearances took place starting on May 13, 14, and 15, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., except for the last day, when it was held from 6:45 to 10 a.m. in order to meet the habeas corpus deadline. The defendants were brought to the proceedings in groups of 10, shackled at the wrists, waist, and ankles. Plea and Sentencing hearings commenced on May 19, and were concluded by May 22. Among other preparations, 26 federally certified interpreters had been contracted by the Clerk’s Office of the U.S. District Court one month prior to the raid to work in the city of Waterloo, Iowa, but were not told what the nature of the proceedings would be. One of the interpreters, Erik Camayd-Freixas, Ph.D., has issued a public statement on his observations of the raid and the proceedings. The raid has also been criticized as evidencing ICE involvement in the suppression of labor rights. On May 8, 2007, officials of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), who had been trying to organize the plant for approximately eight months, stated that 200 employees walked out of the Agriprocessors plant when company officials asked an unknown number of employees about a letter received from the Social Security Administration stating that the workers’ Social Security numbers did not match federal records. Labor abuses, sexual harassment, and cruelty to animals at the Agriprocessors plant had also been denounced by certain Jewish publications and organizations, some of which had called for a boycott of kosher meat from the plant. Agriprocessors also faced a federal lawsuit filed on March 27, 2007, in which the workers claimed that the company had not paid them for “prep time” for two years. The start of ICE investigation and the workers’ walkout took place at approximately the same time. The raid has also been criticized for its effect on the families of the defendants and for causing trauma to school children in the town. The raid meant that Postville lost 1/3 of its population in a single day. 12 of 15 Latino high school students did not return to school the next day, and 120 out of 363 children were absent from the elementary and middle school on the day after the raid. In the following days, 70 students came back to school, but 50 remained unaccounted for. The superintendant of the Postville school district noted that the school district’s future was unclear, stating, “This literally blew our town away.” Some American parents reported that their children were traumatized by the sudden disappearance of so many school friends. In some cases, their children were having nightmares that their own parents were being taken away. There were small children who were left behind for up to 72 hours with no parent, including U.S. citizen children born in the United States. Later, most of the mothers were released "on humanitarian grounds" with an ankle GPS monitor, while the husband served his prison sentence. The mothers were not allowed to work during this period. A Catholic nun reported that hundreds of families were torn apart by the raid. Many community members fled to St. Bridget's Catholic Church. Catholic humanitarian workers who came in from El Centro Latinoamericano, a Hispanic resource center in Waterloo, stated that as they entered the church, they found “hundreds of people in shock and distress, frightened to leave the church for fear of being arrested, and desperate to find out what was happening to their loved ones who had been detained.” Too frightened to go home, “men, women, children and babies remained at the church sleeping on the floor and church pews.” In communities around Postville, such as Waterloo, many immigrants became too scared to go to work. Many lost their jobs, and others went into hiding. Some abandoned Iowa and moved to Chicago. Many Postville business were also forced to close down as the economy of the town came to a near halt. The day after the raid, a local school teacher reported that ICE was performing house-to-house searches of “every home and apartment that has a Hispanic name attached to it.” That same teacher reported that one month prior to the raid, agencies had gone to the school with a subpoena to seize all student and employee files, and that any name that sounded Hispanic was flagged. The raid has also come to the attention of the indigenous people’s movement internationally. A resolution from the Annual Conference of the International Indian Treaty Council held in Chimaltenango, Guatemala, specifically expressed the organization’s “solidarity with those arrested in the recent raids by the immigration authorities in Postville, Iowa, the majority of whom were Guatemalan indigenous peoples, whose right to work has been criminalized.” The raid met with a humanitarian response, initially from the local community and later from a number of organizations and communities throughout the country. St. Bridget’s, which coordinated the humanitarian efforts, provided refuge for families, in response to 400 people who sought refuge at the church. They also organized volunteers from the community to prepare and serve food, locate diapers, pillows, and blankets, and provide organized activities for the children. Members of Centro Latinoamericano, teachers from the Postville School District, and the St. Bridget’s staff also worked to get information on those detained, particularly the 17 minors. Many donations were received for this work from the Postville community. Donations were also collected by Jewish Community Action in St. Paul, Minnesota. In one case, a Postville family took in the children of their neighbor until the mother was released. On July 3, 2008, Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, and Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43, were arrested at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant. Both were charged with aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identity documents, and encouraging aliens to illegally reside in the United States. Guerrero-Espinoza was also charged with aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft. The charges were filed in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids.. References: 1) Interpreting after the Largest ICE Raid in US History, Erik Camayd-Freixas, Ph.D. Florida International University. http://thesanctuary.soapblox.net/showDiary.do;jsessionid=F81F118F819C8672DBAFEB6AD9AAA844?diaryId=269 2) Interviews with Guatemalan Mayans in the U.S. 3) http://www.sistersofmercy.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1385&Itemid=193 4) Stealing from God and from our Neighbors by Rabbi Amy Eilberg http://seekpeaceandpursueit.blogspot.com/2008/06/stealing-from-god-and-from-our.html 5) Postville, Iowa, Immigration Raids Tear Apart Families, Destroy Local Economy, Elise Martins, http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/category/religion/kashrut/agriprocessors/page/2/ 6) Court Calendar in the proceedings against the workers of the Agriprocessors plant. 7) Resolution of the International Indian Treaty Council on Economic Justice, Fair Trade, and Economic Self Dtermination for Indigenous Peoples; the Effects of Free Trade Agreements, Immigration, and the Rights of Workers. 8) An Interpreter Speaking Up for Migrants, By JULIA PRESTON, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/us/11immig.html?hp 9) Two alleged supervisors arrested at Agriprocessors in Postville http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0807/080703cedarrapids.htm 10) http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/080515waterloo.htm