When the raid happened the principal of the local public school said that it was the saddest day of his life, having to separate his Hispanic students from the others to keep them in the gymnasium until it was determined if their parents had been taken in the raid or not. Many of these children still have anxiety problems because of having one of their parents taken away. Behavior problems have also become increasingly prevalent for the children who are still left in Postville.

Luther College Campus Pastor David Vasquez was influential in mobilizing the Decorah, Iowa community to help the families of those taken in the raid. When school started again in the fall the campus community mobilized to connect to the Postville community in as many ways as possible. There have been numerous forums on campus discussing the raid and what Luther’s role should be now. There have also been campus groups doing food, clothing, and money drives for the people of Postville because they had no way to make money, but needed to feed their families. Luther students have teamed with an immigration rights organization in the community as well. Students are volunteering in the two food pantries, as translators, child care providers, and in providing transportation for families in leaving Postville.

The plant is now closed, many of the workers have been deported but still nine months later men and women remain in Postville with ankle monitoring devices not able to leave and not able to work. Human rights and labor rights in Immigration policy is something we should keep our eyes on with Obama’s choice for Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano.

Erik Camayd-Freixas, a court interpreter for Spanish speaking workers in Postville describes the human rights violations, but stories that came out later detail the violations of labor rights as well. There were at least seven workers under the age of 16 operating machinery that is prohibited for workers to use until they are over 18. Safety and working condition violations were revealed as well. Workers were discouraged from even mentioning unions. One worker that came in to speak to a sociology class at Luther described a time when the managers drew a picture of the devil with the word union under it on a piece of poster board and paraded it around so that all workers could see “what would happen to them” if they were to talk to union organizers. 

Another startling piece of information came during the same month as the raid.  Last August, 2008, Agriprocessors asked the Supreme Court to overturn their 1984 ruling that gave undocumented immigrants the right to join unions. This ruling was made because the Supreme Court believed that any worker, even if they are undocumented fall under the category of “employee” defined by the National Labor Relations Act. While it seems that the Supreme Court is holding strong to the 1984 rulings, if this were to happen there would be serious repercussions for many workers all over this country.

It is clear that Agriprocessors was running a campaign of terror against its workers and were even trying to change the laws in order to make sure they were able to maintain complete control over their work force.  The situation in Postville has really affected my college community and has been a wake up call for realizing how our own backyard is ground zero for some of today’s most complicated societal issues.