The Raid in Postville and
Diminishing the Law
By
Richard W.
Crockett
The Republican crusade against the
Mexicans (for narrow political reasons) is reinforced with Immigration and
Naturalization Service agency power and has now spilled over to become an assault
upon small towns and local economies.
Following the raid by Immigration Customs Enforcement, May 12, 2008, on
the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa where more than 390 workers were
placed under arrest for their immigrant status, the plant was forced to shut
down. The plant produced Ò60
percent of the Kosher meat and 40 percent of the Kosher poultry throughout the
nation,Ó according to the New York Times. The plant was a primary engine of the local economy. Postville over the last few years has
grown from a sleepy, declining town of 1300 to a busy rural community of 3500
population directly as a result of the purchase and reopening of a closed meat
packing facility by folks from a New York Jewish community, who were interested
in addressing a market need for Kosher food products. Upon re-opening, the plant initially employed immigrants
from Mexico, but eventually they employed persons from Guatemala, Israel and
the Ukraine. Their legal status
not withstanding, the influx of workers and the diversification of the
community restored vibrancy to a declining economy and community.
At the first there were stresses
and strains resulting from the presence of the new arrivals. Some of these have been outlined in a
book, Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America (2000) by
Steven G. Bloom and also in an article in National Geographic
magazine. But eventually most of
the local community came to make their peace with the new arrivals. Some of the initial conflict came from
an urban-rural conflict where differences in customs undermined social
integration. Rural and small
community folks in the Midwest are usually friendly and are apt to greet you on
the street whether they really know you or not. It is an expression of self-reassurance that they are not
Òstuck upÓ or too full of themselves.
Urban folks on the other hand, living in a more impersonal environment,
are more careful around strangers and are often suspicious of anyone whom they
donÕt know and if spoken to by a stranger they may not respond and are apt to
wonder, ÒWhat do they want from me?Ó
This difference sent unfortunate messages, not fully understood between
the groups. Some of the divide no
doubt sprang from differences in manner of dress, language and custom and
reinforced initial suspicion.
Many of the new arrivals from Brooklyn, N. Y., being Orthodox in their
faith, dressed in traditional attire and appeared in sharp contrast to small
town, Mid-western folks of almost exclusively European ancestry. Many Hispanics
spoke only Spanish. The divide
needed to be closed and eventually it was, at least they began to speak to each
other and apparently came to understand that they had a mutuality of interests.
And of course, dollars count.
Businesses began to benefit from the presence of the new arrivals. But it apparently it was not to
last.
In response to the Immigration
Customs Enforcement raid, Republican State Senator Mark Zieman, remarked, ÒICE
is doing a job that theyÕre charged with doing.Ó Intriguingly, he added an ambiguous phrase, Òbut I do feel
it is fallout from a failed system where government has failed to act on the
immigration policy that needs to be addressed.Ó What kind of action is needed? Whatever he may have meant by that, the raid on the plant
seen in the worst light seems bent on actualizing our worst nativist instincts
and is playing out as an attack on the local economy in Postville. It is in particular an attack on
workers, but it will surely bubble up from consumer to merchant with
devastating affects. Mark Grey, of
the University of Northern Iowa told the New York Times, ÒItÕs
absolutely devastating to the local economy.Ó
If one tries to attribute motives
to Immigration agency action, various possibilities exist. In politics there are Ògood reasonsÓ
and Òreal reasonsÓ for everything.
The Ògood reasonÓ for their action is that they are arresting
lawbreakers, illegal immigrants guilty of an unmitigated assault upon American
stability and order. The Òreal
reasonÓ is nativism at the least,
and perhaps even racism, and this looms largest. It could be described as anti-Hispanic and perhaps even
anti-Semitic. Some will argue that
the workers were illegal and should be deported for breaking the immigration
law. But the history of American
nativism and racism is well established, and most of our immigration law has
sprung from an attempt by descendants of European immigrants to favor Òtheir
own kind,Ó and to exclude those they saw as unlike themselves. At the first there were no immigration
laws. Then only northern and
western Europeans were welcome, and we were inclined to pick and choose among
them. Eventually the exceptions,
the Irish of Òno Irish need applyÓ fame were included and even the Italians,
who suffered fame, as Òthose swarthy DevilsÓ from southern Europe, were
included. Even though revisions in
our immigration law have taken place, it has not been an attempt to Òbe fair,Ó
but restrictive. It remains a
rationing of acceptability, doled out to those whom we prefer to grant entrance
to the United States. This
rationing is little less than enshrining racism within the law, and although it
looks like a defensible position which in outward appearances sanitizes a kind
of Klu Klux Klan mentality, it remains what it is, racism. An attempt to enshrine racism within
the law does not ennoble racism: it simply diminishes the law. It is only a small stretch to consider
what Anatole France reminded us, that, Òthe law in its splendid impartiality
comes to bear on rich and poor alike for sleeping under bridges or stealing a
loaf of bread.Ó