Posted on 11/24/2008 8:29:31 AM PST by george76
For months, CBS News has been following the deepening troubles of tiny Postville, Iowa, population 2,200. Now the shutdown of the town's main employer following a federal immigration raid has Postville at the point of desperation...
Postville, Iowa was just decorated with holiday cheer. But looks can be deceiving.
"In the last few weeks - it's really gone downhill dramatically," says Mayor Bob Penrod.
With empty streets - and shuttered shops - this small town is facing economic calamity.
Penrod is taking steps this weekend to declare a state of emergency here - but not a natural disaster - rather one that's man-made.
"If we don't get some help from the state or federal government, we're going to be in deep trouble financially,"
Earlier this month - Jeff and Holly's employer, Agriprocessors, a kosher meat processing plant here suspended operations, and filed for bankruptcy protection. Once the town's largest employer - this was just the latest in a string of setbacks for the company - and for Postville.
It all started on May 12, 2008, when hundreds of federal immigration authorities raided Agriprocessors and arrested 389 workers.
Many like Irma Rucal were undocumented immigrants. Six months later she still wears a tracking anklet and waits for a court date.
"There are a lot of people in the U.S. who, frankly, wouldn't have a lot of sympathy for you," Doane reminded Rucal. "They would say you shouldn't haven't been here you were working illegally and you shouldn't be able to work here."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
The town doesn''t have 389 unemployed "legal" people who needed jobs and therefore the company can still operate?
So what is it the immigrants were doing that others can't do?
ht comments
The republic has fallen....................
(Of course, look for the crackdowns to end after 1/20/09).
NO PROBLEM - - - BAIL OUT MONEY ON THE WAY!!!! $25 billion check in the mail.
If you play with fire ... you will get burned. And creating a situation where the town is dependent on a single firm to maintain the economic viability of the town ... and allow that firm to go on hiring illegal aliens, is most defiantly playing with fire.
I assume a union set the federales on a plant that refused to knuckle under. Anyone know otherwise?
Can’t they just post an add on the Michigan craigslist or in the detroitfreepress. Of course, they would be inundated if they did that.
Show up for their shifts.
Maybe if they hired Americans then they might not be in this mess. One slaughterhouse was raided 9 months ago. They ran ads for jobs and thousands of Americans showed up looking for work. I guess paying a $1 an hour more is not worth it.
Actions have consequences.
Help Wanted signs attract attention
Kosher processed beef sells for premium prices. Therefore the company SHOULD be able to pay fair wages to people willing to move there (nice town and rural setting).
They can likely avail themselves of low priced housing due to the rapid disappearance of former owners/tenants.
I think the packing plant owners are trying to issue a PAYBACK for the affront of making them follow the law.
Probably not. Out of 2200 people in the town, 389 was probably most of their labor force.
Out of that 2200, let's say that 20% are children and 20% are elderly. Now you're down to 880 people. Out of that, let's say 10% choose not to work or cannot (stay at home moms, those on disability, the mentally handicapped, etc), and now you're down to 800. Now take 25% of the remainder that are either self-employed (the local baker, the plumbing and electrical contractor, the mechanic) or are in service industries supporting the plant (the delivery drivers, the restaurant owners, the teachers at the local schools), and you're down to just 580 employees, of whom at least 450 or so work at the plant. Then you take those 389 illegals away, and you're down to all supervisors and admin types, with no one left to support.
So, the plant closes down and the town dies.
I freely admit that I'm making up these percentages, but I think they're reasonable.
Not too unusual in rural areas. Many small communities are dependent on a few businesses in their local area. That's especially true when those communities are far from urban areas. Small businesses like groceries, gas stations, diners, and taverns don't have what it takes for a community to remain stable. And one would have to look at Postville's demographics to determine whether legal residents could fill the void.
It all started on May 12, 2008, when hundreds of federal FDA inspectors raided Agriprocessors and shut down the plant for using 20% sawdust instead of beef to save money.
Quien vive por el mojado se morirá por el mojado.
LOL! I can tell that you've never lived in a small town with a single major employer.
Former CEO Sholom Rubashkin, 49, of Postville, was charged with two new counts — harboring undocumented aliens for profit and conspiracy to commit document fraud. He was previously charged with conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit, aiding and abetting document fraud, six counts of aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft and two counts of bank fraud.
Operations manager Brent Beebe, 51, and poultry managers Hosam Amara, 44, and Zeev Levi, all of Postville, are each charged with conspiracy to harbor undocumented aliens for profit, harboring undocumented aliens for profit, conspiracy to commit document fraud and aiding and abetting document fraud.
http://gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081121/NEWS/711219928
Agriprocessors should not have hired illegal aliens.
This is THEIR fault, not mine. And yet, I am called upon yet again to “donate” my tax dollars for a crisis I had no part in making.
Don't bet your lunch money on it. They don't call Michigan the "winter water welfare" capital for nothing........
You're on the right track, but I'd bet that agriculture is the second most dominant business. Beyond that, it's the small businesses; diners taverns groceries & gas stations. Still, the fact the business relied on illegals likely goes beyond their cheap labor. I doubt they'd be able to fill their employee needs otherwise in a rural setting like this. But, you see, they go to these areas to begin with BECAUSE of cheap labor. Then, when their business booms, they find they need illegal labor to fill their ranks...
A federal grand jury has issued a 12-count indictment alleging that managers were intricately involved in efforts to employ illegal workers at a kosher slaughterhouse that was the site of one of the nation’s largest immigration raids.
The indictment includes three new defendants — Brent Beebe, Hosam Amara and Zeev Levi
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/21/AR2008112103163.html
I saw something about this crap last night on the local news. Apparently there are some bleeding heart libs who are helping the illegals. I kept waiting for the newscaster to talk about REAL AMERICANS out of work or helping each other but the people he interviewed were straight up that they were helping illegals. The story made me sick.
Screw Postville. If they want to help illegals they should give them a friggin’ ticket back to Mexico.
As the town continues to decline, I wonder how many out-of-work or barely working Americans will be willing to give up what little they have to help criminals.
The town deserves to die and the owners of these businesses that hired these low wage illegal aliens needs to be prosecuted and jail.
They refused to pay a wage that one could actually survive on..They instead opted to break the law...
All for bigger profits.
Profits regardless of consequences.
Throughout human history towns have come and gone. It’s not like these people are forced to stay there and starve. Life is tough, and I suspect in the near future it’s going to get tougher for many of us.
Actually, those numbers are not too far off.
I think the charges against management may also be part of the reason for the local problems. If management is in place, the plant can go out and get other laborers. With management under indictment, maybe unable to work everyday, etc. I bet there’s no one at the helm just now and everything is going to hell in a handbasket.
Baruch Weiss, a lawyer for former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin, told a judge today that unnamed investors are in negotiations to buy the company.
“Very soon, the company will be out of Rubashkin hands,”
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081119/NEWS/81119054/1001/
It all started The criminal conspiracy was broken on May 12, 2008, when hundreds of federal immigration authorities raided Agriprocessors and arrested 389 workers. illegal aliens.
The owners, plant managers, are all under federal indictment, the usual excuses don't pan out - testimony given to the grand jury is that plant managers routinely paid for illegal aliens to get false identifications and work permits, and the report is that on May 11th, one day before the raid, requested the human resources department open on a Sunday to process more fraudulent documentation.
Bank fraud charges have also been filed against the principles in the case.
The criminal conspiracy extends far beyond the plant, with even a city councilman renting out trailers to illegal aliens at grossly inflated prices. The plant does not presently have the cash to meet payroll, and is in court asking permission to steal the cash collateral used to borrow money from the bank and give it to the employees. Which of course is lawyer speak for: We'd like to get money out of this client before we get screwed too.
2, 200 people? What’s the big deal?
This pinprick of a settlement (”Town” is a complete misnomer) clearly only ever existed because of this company in the first place. Let it fail.
Run Postville, IA through Wikipedia. You’ll see the kosher meat processing plant was started by a group of Hasidic Jews from New York. A number of managers have been indicted not only for employing illegals but for child labor violations.
There was another meat processing plant at one time, but it burned down in 2003, then rebuilt elsewhere. There’s also a plastics factory in town.
There seems to be a fairly high number of single person households (IMO). I’d say they were there because of work and for no other reason. Without the work, those who were legal likely moved on.
It seems that some Jews had problems with this kosher plant for using slaughter methods that were inhumane and contrary to kosher law.
The plant was in trouble before the INS raid.
There is a LOT more going on here than just an Immigration raid and bankruptcy.
Agriprocessors Inc. ran an illegal enterprise that violated Federal and State laws on child labor in hazardous occupations, tax laws, failing to pay overtime wages, failing to report severe workplace injuries and on employing undocumented aliens. There were questions about exactly how “Kosher” thier product was, too.
PETA vowed to shut this company down, as a show of strength to other kosher slaughterhouses. Plus, kosher meats from South America are coming in at 10% of US labor costs!
I forgot about the child labor violations. Hang ‘em all.
Though I don’t keep kosher, I am Jewish and it bothered me to no end that a place that’s supposed to provide kosher food was involved in hiring illegals, child labor, and animal torture. If you believe in an fair wage for labor, how do you exploit illegals just to decrease wage costs? In addition, there are videos on YouTube of the slaughterers taking out the cows’ tracheas. That’s not part of Jewish ritual slaughter. There was nothing Jewish or even humane about how that plant treated workers or the animals.
I’m glad someone else mentioned the treatment of animals here. Last time I did that, I got all kinds of grief.
For those who are interested, see: If This is Kosher, short version at: http://www.goveg.com/jsfkosher.asp.
You’re correct, this isn’t new and I don’t care who’s doing the investigations, the place needed to be closed down.
There’s a lot more to this story than a plant being hit by immigration laws. This place was a fraud itching to be caught for a long time. Its management deserves what is dealt to them.
As for the legal employees, that’s what happens when you’re part of an illegal adventure; knowingly or not. What’s in the back of my mind is that loss of the other “major” employer in the area, the other meat processing plant in 2003 due to fire. Hmmmmmmm...
That's the only solution these kind of people know: "Give me taxpayer money!"
I don’t feel sorry for them, and the owners should be in jail.
People in that part of the midwest typically drive 20 miles one way to grocery shop. They drive even farther for available jobs. The problem is the company would rather punish the town and create pressure to legalize illegal aliens than actually solve the problem by hiring from the local legal labor pool.
With only a population of 2,200, I would say no.........Sounds to me like the place employs the whole town.
If you were the avg libsheep, getting paid, say, 1200 a month for doing nothing (some gov't dole) or had to work in a meat processing plant for 2000 a month take home...
Agree. If immigration laws were enforced and all employers played by the rules, labor costs would rise, but so would prices the meat processors could charge for their product, as the competition would not be undercuttng them with illegal labor. Demand would also increase, as American workers would have more purchasing power, and all the wealth being sent abroad by illegals would remain in our economy.
If a product or service cannot be delivered with legal labor, and still turn a profit, then there is insufficient demand for that product or service, and some or all providers of it should go out of business, and production decreased or stopped entirely. If a product or service is REALLY needed, there will be demand for it, at a price that turns a profit.
Cheaters, like those who hire illegal labor, screw up the workings of the market, and create a situtation where it is difficult or impossible for law abiding companies to make a profit.
The government’s primary role in the economy should be ensuring that everyone plays by the rules. The market will take care of nearly all the rest.
the minimum wage does kill jobs
The problems with Agriprocessors and its owners went way beyond employing illegals. This was an organized crime operation from day one, and the town should never have tolerated it. Now the town’s original residents are reaping what they sowed.
The owner is in jail.
The government shut them down. There are criminal charges being brought against the company. Sorry, NO “attempt could have been made”.
Hey, hey, now. Easy with the slurs.
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