Phil Haslanger: Seeking justice after immigration raid in Iowa

**Phil Haslanger

Opinion

The Capital Times - Madison, Wisconsin

7/23/2008

Catholics, Protestants, Jews -- they are all drawing on their unique faith traditions and cultural backgrounds to bring a bit of humanity and justice to Postville, Iowa, after a dramatic immigration raid in mid-May at a meatpacking plant there.

The drama in the town of 2,000 in northeastern Iowa, about 25 miles west of Prairie du Chien, has drawn concern from faith communities in the Madison area as well as across the nation. One public display of that concern will come this Sunday when people from around the Midwest will travel to Postville for an interfaith prayer gathering at the Catholic Church and a march through the town.

"This is a call for justice," said Sister Mary McCauley, the administrator of St. Bridget's Catholic Church, in announcing the rally. "This is a call to be faithful to our American and religious values. This is a call to stand in solidarity with our Hispanic brothers and sisters."

Sandra Rybacheck, a Guatemalan in Madison who has been to Postville a half dozen times since the raid to bring relief supplies, is working with local Spanish-speaking congregations to try to get some area residents there for the rally. And the local Interfaith Workers Justice Center and Workers Rights Center have lined up a bus that will leave from the UW Memorial Union at 9 a.m. Sunday.

Jewish groups from St. Paul, Minn., and Chicago are joining in organizing the event. That's significant because the meatpacking plant is the largest producer of kosher beef and pork in the country. Its purchase by a Jewish family in 1987, followed by an influx of Hasidic Jewish workers and families, was one transformation of Postville, a traditionally German and Norwegian farming community.

The next transformation came in more recent years with the influx of Hispanic workers as employment at the plant skyrocketed. Many of them were Catholic.

You can see where the religious and cultural dynamics at work in Postville get a little bit complicated.

The town and its meatpacking plant have been in the spotlight before. There were reports on CNN and PBS and a book in 2000 about the conflicts between the Hasidic Jews and longtime residents. Then in 2005, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, spurred on by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, launched an investigation of the kosher slaughtering practices at the plant.

But none of that was quite like what happened on May 12, when some 900 agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took 390 workers into custody for having false documentation about their legal status in this country. Some 290 of them were from Guatemala, 93 from Mexico, and a handful from Israel and Ukraine. It was the largest such federal raid ever at a single workplace.

St. Bridget Catholic Church was right on the front line. It had to deal with the trauma of all the families that had suddenly been thrown into turmoil. The Rev. Paul Ouderkirk came out of retirement. The parish has hired temporary workers to help track court cases and it is a distribution center for food and money to the families torn apart by the raid. It is also a gathering place for prayer.

Jewish organizations had to deal with the fact that a critical institution for Jews who observe dietary restrictions had not only been employing workers with false documents, but also faced serious allegations of exploiting those workers. Some Jewish organizations have tried to deal with the justice issues around the treatment of the workers. Other Jewish groups are sending money and truckloads of food to help the families. And Jewish leaders are helping organize Sunday's march.

In Madison, Rabbi Renee Bauer, director of the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin, will speak at Temple Beth Israel on Aug. 9 about the situation in Postville. Protestant groups in Iowa -- Episcopal, Lutheran and Methodist bishops, as well as the regional leader of the United Church of Christ -- quickly joined the chorus of those denouncing the abuses faced by immigrant workers. They also called attention to the exploitation of immigrant workers during the cleanup following the floods that devastated so much of Iowa during June.

All of this fits into a pattern of many faith communities entering the hot-button issues of immigration tilting toward the side of the workers.

"Both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament tell us to welcome the sojourner in our midst and to include those who are excluded," said the Rev. Julia Rendon, a staff member of the Iowa Conference of the United Church of Christ. "We believe God cherishes every person, and as Christians we must stand up for those who lack the resources to defend themselves."

Of course, this runs right into the national push against immigrant workers who are in this country illegally. But members of the faith traditions involved in the Postville situation recognize that while the political debate rages, the lives of families are being dramatically affected by the actions of employers who exploit them and government agents who exert power over them.

In the midst of all of this, it is this coalition of religious workers who are injecting humanity and a sense of justice into what has become a nightmare for one small community.

**Phil Haslanger is a minister in the United Church of Christ who writes this column as well as a blog on the Cap Times Web site.

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