True North

With chants of "end the raids" and "si se puede," or "Yes, we can" hundreds of immigration protesters marched through the streets of Postville on Sunday, bringing a national debate to an isolated corner of northeastern Iowa.

Busloads of protesters from the Twin Cities and Chicago as well as hundreds of others from around the region rallied in this city of about 2,200 to protest a federal immigration raid of the Agriprocessors plant in May.

The May 12 raid at Agriprocessors -- the nation's biggest kosher meatpacking plant -- was the largest in U.S. history and resulted in 389 arrests. Most of those arrested were Guatemalan and Mexican nationals who lived in Postville and the surrounding area.

I just don't know where to begin with this one. You've got Rabbi Harold Kravitz of the Adath Jeshurun Congregation in Minnetonka declaring the protesters wanted to "stop the criminalization of people who come to the U.S. simply to make a living".

There are others saying it's not the fault of the illegals. The guy who runs the plant says it's "unfair to blame his family and Agriprocessors for the raid".

This is a "tiny Iowa town". They've got 398 illegals working in the plant. Those folks most likely have families, so one can safely assume that there were over a thousand. In a tiny town. In Iowa.

This is a failure on so many levels it's staggering. Federal immigration policy is a disgrace. We bring people in legally, train them up to PhDs and then make them leave. At the same time we refuse to defend our borders to prevent a sea of low-skilled workers from pouring in. Then, to compliment this utter stupidity, we subsidize the existing low-skilled population, providing it the means to not have to seek those jobs being filled by illegals. Genius.

Postville resident Dave Hartley said the protests were unfortunate because they could have been avoided. But the 50-year-old said he didn't fault people for coming to his town to make their point.

"It's not their fault," he said of the protesters. "It just didn't need to get to this, to a boiling point. People knew what was going on in there, in Agriprocessors and this could have been dealt with another way.

Indeed. It should have been prevented.

Cross-posted at Anti-Strib. Comments welcome.