Postville [Iowa] Struggling in Raid's Wake

POSTVILLE Among those hurting in Postville right now is Agriprocessors, the kosher meatpacking plant that is trying to keep up with orders without at least 390 of its workers, who were arrested in a Monday immigration raid.

By several reports, the company has bused in workers from its Nebraska plant to try and keep up production. Zita Frantz, the manager of the Pines Motel, which the company owns, said she knows of at least 75 workers who’ve been bused in.

Jim Fallon, the plant’s designated spokesman, based in Kansas City, Mo., did not return phone calls asking for comment Thursday.

But Rhonda Lechuga, 40, who’s worked in shipping at Agriprocessors for two years, said the people who’ve worked in parts and maintenance have been reassigned to chicken cut-up lines.

She said she and three other women in her department are being rotated on a four-day schedule.

“All four of us are getting our hours cut,” she said. “There’s no one to work on the cut-up line, and also there’s not enough people in shipping to pull boxes to get them on the trucks.”

Just about everyone she knew who worked at Agriprocessors either is gone, has taken a cut in hours or has had responsibilities shifted. She said she has “no clue” when she’ll go back full time.While many in this town of 2,600 are sympathetic to the workers — and, in particular, their children — others think the enforcement action was overdue.

Teddy Hughes Jr. of Frankville, who builds grain bins for a company just east of Postville, said he has no problem with the way federal immigration agents rounded up illegal immigrants at Agriprocessors.

“They’re breaking the law,” he said. “If you’re an American citizen, and you break the law, you go to jail.”

More than 300 of 390 men and women arrested in the Monday raid are charged with either misusing a Social Security number or some type of identity theft.

Quite a few people share Hughes’ opinion, he said, but are afraid to say so.

Adolfo Calderon, who manages about 100 downtown properties, disagrees.

“I call this evil — tearing families apart,” he said. “The government has no idea how painful this is.”

Stan Straate, president of Freedom Bank in Postville, said many of those in northeast Iowa who are happiest to see immigration laws enforced in Postville don’t live there.

It’s a complicated issue, he said, and people 50 miles away reading about illegal immigrants in Postville often don’t see the nuances as well as those who are directly involved with the Hispanic community in the town.

It’s too early, he said, to know how the raid will affect the town in the long term. But he thinks, as do many other business owners in town, that the Rubashkins, the plant’s owners, have too much invested in Postville to walk away from it.

In a sense, he said, the banks, property owners and tenants are in it together.

He said he plans to work with property owners who might not be able to pay the mortgages on vacant properties because “what good is owning a house that’s vacant?”

“I’m of the opinion that it will work out,” he said.Opinions aside, the plight of families affected by the raid has generated an outpouring of assistance, according to Ardie Kuhse of Postville, who’s been helping the dozens of families still staying overnight at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church, the unofficial headquarters for family assistance.

People and churches from Winneshiek, Allamakee, Fayette and Clayton counties have dropped off food, baby food, diapers and other items at the church, where volunteers have been serving breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days.

“People call and say, ‘What are you low on?’” Kuhse said.

On Thursday morning in the small bathroom at the church, tubes of toothpaste and bottles of shampoo were stacked on a shelf near the sink as elementary-school-age boys washed up to get ready for school.

As several mothers and younger children quietly ate breakfast in the fellowship hall behind the church sanctuary, Chad Wahls, principal of Postville’s Darling Elementary and Middle School, moved through the room, gathering kids and putting them on a small bus to the school, less than three blocks away.

About 50 kids who’d spent the night at the church took the bus to school.

It’s important to get children back into a regular routine, Wahls said.

To some extent, he’s been successful.

About 120 students didn’t show up for school on Tuesday, the day after the raid. By Thursday, all but 30 of those were back in school, Wahls said.

“The best day that can come,” he said, “is when these kids feel safe enough to walk back to school.”