U.S. town turned into an open-air prison

U.S. town turned into an open-air prison

Charles Lewis, National Post Published: Friday, August 15, 2008
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The town of Postville, Iowa, population 2,000, has been turned into an open-air prison. Jerry Johnson, who works at nearby Luther College, called it something out of a bad science-fiction movie or the kind of thing a 1930s totalitarian regime might have cooked up.

"This was not only a grievous injustice but a shame on the state of Iowa and the federal government," said Mr. Johnson. "These were good, decent people who were also the most defenseless."

On May 12, immigration officials swooped in to arrest 400 undocumented workers from Mexico and Guatemala at the local meat-packing plant, a raid described as the biggest such action at a single site in U.S. history. The raid left 43 women, wives of the men who were taken away, and their 150 children without status or a means of support. The women cannot leave the town, and to make sure they do not they have been outfitted with leg monitoring bracelets.

"The women are effectively prisoners," said Father Paul Ouderkirk at St. Bridget's Roman Catholic Church. "The difference between them and anybody who is in jail is that in jail the government pays for them, but if they're on the streets we pay for them.

"What kind of a government makes prisoners of 43 mothers who all have children and then says, ‘You can't work, you can't leave and can't stay?' That boggles the imagination."

more...

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=726632

to the thread that had discussion. A snippy good morning right back at you.

Your comment:


is just so sad beyond words for a Democrat. Your sense of compassion is underwhelming. I am very sure we will never, never hear those kind of words from Obama, or even from very few labor leaders. Yes, viewing them as simply "illegals" is very telling. I've been a member of the Teamsters Union for many years now and I'm not sure if I want to read any more comments like that unless they come from a Republican, and then I can understand the disdain.

I didn't think so.

ETA - Are you a Democrat if you have compassion for 1 group of people but not another? Illegals deserve compassion but those that have lost their jobs due to them don't? I hope I never hear any Democrat infer that again.

like it said all you had to say about the subject? Couldn't you have taken the time then to add more than that little terse statement? You certainly didn't indicate any compassion there, but then I won't have to be reading any more of your comments again.

May I send all my posts to you so you can critique them before I post them? That way I can stay in step with your thoughts. I didn't say it because the article clearly wanted sympathy for illegals and I have none. My next post stated why. You don't make any statements about only illegals having your sympathy and not those who are misplaced in their jobs. Why would that be? Because you only have sympathy for 1 group of people?

on this immigration issue. Yet you only mentioned that correlation once in one of your posts. The rest were just rants on the immigrants. Can you enlighten us a little more about your understanding of corporate blame in all of this? Maybe a bit more 'balance' in your argument would make your stance seem less inhumane. As it is your convincing no one. Just a thought.

They are a non-human sub-species.

If they were really human then they would have the sense that most Americans have, and they would have been born here.

Right on!

concentration camps so the penal industry can hire more guards, administrators, build more camps, make more profits, and be ready to incarcerate other Americans when they try to stop this insanity.

Where I live and work, our economy would collapse if illegal immigrants were all shipped back to their countries of origin.

When will our Congress stand up and demand that we give these immigrants who want to be American citizens the chance to do that? When will we realize that this illegal immigrant influx is something that our business community is making billions off of?

The events in Postville are just one more manifestation of the Nazi mentality of those in charge of our government institutions. This is a disgrace to America.

To date, not one HR director, or anyone else in a position of authority at that company has been arrested. There is little doubt that they knew they were hiring illegals. This company has a bad record of safety and labor violations. Someone should sure as hell be held accountable. I will try and find links and post them later.

to revisit this situation and set up a more feasible one.

I tell everyone that Our Nation has been overtaken by a non-violent coup de etat. We no longer have a Republic, and we no longer have civil rights. We need further checks and balances. We need a true justice system, and we need to remove the influence of the Corporate Oligarchs over our system. We can have true democracy. Maybe part of the problem is having a Republic. Only in a Democracy are all of the People important.

Where are all those posters who said it cannot happen here?

First they came for the Jews...

What the hell are those mothers supposed to do?

The ankle-bracelet lobby probably pushed for this raid, as part of a test phase of a larger plan.

The entire concept is insane, therefore, it must be motivated by corporate greed, IMO.

What have we Americans become when we treat human beings like this?

are was it more like this Holding the "Deportation Card"
The most fundamental problem with guestworker programs, both historically and currently, is that the employer — not the worker — decides whether a worker can come to the United States and whether he can stay.

Because of this arrangement, the balance of power between employer and worker is skewed so disproportionately in favor of the employer that, for all practical purposes, the worker's rights are nullified. At any moment, the employer can fire the worker, call the government and declare the worker to be "illegal."

Otto Rafael Boton-Gonzalez, an H-2B forestry worker from Guatemala, has seen first-hand how this works. "When the supervisor would see that a person was ready to leave the job because the pay was so bad, he would take our papers from us. He would rip up our visa and say, 'You don't want to work? Get out of here then. You don't want to work? Right now I will call immigration to take your papers and deport you.'"

Many abuses, perhaps most abuses of guestworkers, flow from the fact that the employer literally holds the deportation card. One of the most chronic abuses reported by guestworkers concerns the seizure of identity documents — in particular passports and Social Security cards. In many instances, workers are told that the documents are being taken in order to ensure that they do not leave in the middle of the contract.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has received dozens of reports of this practice and has, in the course of its legal representation of workers, confirmed that it is routine. While some employers state that they hold the documents for the purpose of "safekeeping," many have been quite candid in explaining that there is a great risk that workers will flee if the documents are not held. One employer sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center stated in her deposition that the company kept workers' Social Security cards in the office because "if they have their Social Security card, they'll leave."

Juan, a forestry worker, said, "The boss took our passports and kept them. He took them as soon as we arrived from Mexico. We would ask for them and he would always say no. When we got paid, we would want to go cash our pay checks. The boss would say, 'Go talk to the driver and he'll change them for you.' They would not give us our passports to cash our pay checks. They would say that the higher company office ordered them to do this. My passport gives me permission to be here so no one will bother me because I am legal. I cannot prove I am legal if I do not have my passport."

There is no realistic mechanism for workers to recover their identity documents. Numerous employers have refused to return these documents even when the worker simply wanted to return to his home country. The Southern Poverty Law Center also has encountered numerous incidents where employers destroyed passports or visas in order to convert workers into undocumented status. When this happens, there is little likelihood of a worker obtaining assistance from local law enforcement officials. In many jurisdictions, lawyers representing workers advise them to avoid calling police because they are more likely to take action against complaining workers than against the employer.

When I offered proof, I was told I didn't know what I was talking about.

based on racial prejudice! Here it is. I think I am really scared. I
:scared: