Postville Raid Talking Points

May 19, 2008

ACTION ALERT: POSTVILLE RAID TALKING POINTS

Dear Network members:

Many thanks to all of you who have been working on sending prayers and presence, as well as financial and community support to the workers and their families involved in last Monday’s Agriprocessors Inc. plant raid. At this point, there is still an immediate need to contact your legislators and local representatives about the situation. Let them know United Methodist churches, families, and individuals all over Iowa stand in solidarity with the workers, and believe we must have compassionate and comprehensive immigration reform in our nation.

Below are some suggested talking points, courtesy of Sandra Sánchez, to use when speaking with your legislators.

Naomi Sea Young Wittstruck

LDM for Social Justice & Mission

515.974.8908

nsy.wittstruck@iaumc.org

FIND YOUR LEGISLATORS HERE: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/FindLeg/

TALKING POINTS

Hard-working immigrants and families are a vital part of our communities, our congregations, and our economy.

• Postville was founded by German and Norwegian immigrants, and then in 1987 economically revived by Hasidic Jews that built the largest Kosher meat packing plant in the town. Now many Guatemalan, Mexican, Ukrainian, and Russian immigrants work at the plant, go to the schools, and fill Postville’s churches.

But the recent raids in Iowa are un-American and do not reflect the basic beliefs and values of our country.

• Nearly 390 hard-working immigrants, already exploited in deplorable working conditions, now find their lives upturned by a massive quasi-military operation. More than 300 hundred are being charged with criminal charges, bypassing the avenues for legal remedies to be assessed.
• ICE agents rounded up hard working men and women, separating them from their families. A far cry to what is “humane.”
• Turning the state cattle grounds into a detention center only adds to the humiliating way in which immigrants are being treated by our own government.
• This affects not just the families who were a part of the raid, but the whole community. This has increased cases of anxiety and depression among children and whole families, immigrant and non-immigrant alike.
• Federal authorities should seriously investigate any and all labor violations of unscrupulous employers like Agriprocessors.
• The Northern District of Iowa is assigning an unrealistic amount of cases to public defenders, demanding from both attorneys and detainees to comply with a “fast track” process that makes a farce of our judicial system!
• Many of the detainees’ first language is Maya-Quiché. The documents they are being asked to sign are provided in English and Spanish! We wonder if the appropriate qualified interpreters are being provided.

We must focus on solutions that help all of our communities.

We call on the Bush Administration to stop the raids that are pulling apart our families and ruining our already fragile economy.

• We call on our local authorities to focus on their primary jobs, keeping all of us safe - instead of acting as immigration officials.
• We call on all Public Defenders involved in this operative to consult with immigration attorneys before they enter into any plea agreements for their clients.
• We also call on Governor Culver and all the presidential candidates to support a just and humane immigration reform - the only real solution to end the state of terror in which many in our communities live.