Fronteras.org

It was exactly one year ago that immigration agents raided the Agriprocessors Meat Packing Plant in the very small town of Postvielle, Iowa.  This raid was a huge deal for multiple reasons.  It was the largest raid in U.S. history at the time, it set new precedent in punishing workers as well as plant owners, and completely shook up the town by arresting a prominent part of their community and closing one of the top employers.  So many stores, rental agencies, and restaurants were tied to Agriprocessors that one year later, Postville finds itself in terrible shape.

The town’s circumstance, even more intricate given the unique cultural dynamics of the midwestern town with large communities consisiting of ultra-orthodox Jews and immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala, were the topic of an interesting article in Truthout.org.  The article illustrate just how bad things have gotten by focusing on Gabay Menahem, a landlord who has seen his monthly take go from $192,000/month to $16,000/month in just a year’s time.  In fact, according to the article, Menahem has only filled 19 of his 129 rentable units.

Properties are in shambles, Main Street business have been shutterred, and come June 1st, the city will be unable to pay it bi-yearly fee of $167,000 owed to the USDA for a wastewater treatment plant with the sole purpose of processing the plant’s waste.

The town has also lost a fortune in property and sales taxes normally paid by its residents, and in addition, morale is down.  Former plant employees were fully committed to being a part of the community, and took better care of their houses and larger community.  Part time and temporary workers have come in and out of Postville, leaving the town worse off than before.  The plant is currently up for sale, and the hope is that a responsible owner will take over and rebuild.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 5:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.