Stories

The marks left behind after a massive May 2008 immigration raid in Iowa are well known by those who have visited the tiny town of Postville; but, according to a new documentary from PBS, the impacts don’t end at city, state, or even national boundaries.

The sale of Agriprocessors in Postville was approved this morning by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Paul J. Kilburg to a newly formed company.
SHF Industries, a company formed in May by Canadian plastics manufacturer Hershey Friedman and his son-in-law Daniel Hirsch, is set to become the company’s new owners. Friedman has indicated that he will continue [...]

Sister Mary McCauley, former pastoral administrator for the region that includes St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville, has been selected by the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women to receive the 2009 Christine Wilson Medal for Equality and Justice.

State child labor charges against former owners and managers of a Postville meatpacking plant won’t be dimissed, but they also won’t be heard in court until next year.
The case, which had been scheduled to start next month, was delayed after Judge Nathan Callahan received requests from both prosecutors and defendants. A new date has not [...]

More than three months have passed since two companies holding millions of debt for Postville’s kosher meatpacking plant declined to accept the bids that were submitted during a court-allotted bidding process. Now, however, it looks as if there is an interested buyer who may have the blessing of key creditors.

A national commission investigating immigration enforcement under the Bush administration has released a comprehensive new report documenting the impact immigration raids have had on families, workplaces and communities across the country, drawing on information from raids in Postville and Marshalltown.

Time may not have necessarily healed all wounds in Postville following last year’s massive federal immigration raid, but it has dulled the pain enough for demonstrators to approach immigration with a considered thoughtfulness not seen previously.

Postville, a city that has proclaimed itself to be a “hometown to the world,” is often too diverse to speak with one unified voice.

A year ago today, Sister Mary McCauley, pastoral administrator for the region that includes St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville, was greeted by a parishioner with the following words: “Sister, a terrible thing has happened to our town.”

One year after revelations of exploitative and abusive work practices at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant made national headlines and shook the consciousness of the Jewish community, Uri L’Tzedek (Awaken to Justice), an Orthodox social justice movement, is publicly launching an ethical seal for kosher eating establishments.