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Iowa Rally Protests Raid and Conditons at Plant
Submitted by jgehring on Mon, 07/28/2008 - 9:32am.
Story summary:
About 1,000 people, including Hispanic immigrants, Catholic clergy members, rabbis and activists, marched through the center of Pottsville, Iowa on Sunday and held a rally at the entrance to a kosher meatpacking plant that was raided in May by immigration authorities. The march was called to protest working conditions in the plant, owned by Agriprocessors Inc., and to call for Congressional legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrants. The march drew a counterprotest by about 150 people, organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes illegal immigrants and proposals to give them legal status.
Iowa Rally Protests Raid and Conditons at Plant
New York Times
7-28-08
At one point, tension surged as the two sides shouted slogans at each other through bullhorns from opposite sidewalks of the main street of this town with a population of about 2,200. The marchers said, “Stop the raids!” Protesters across the street responded, “Illegals go home!” No incidents of disorder were reported by the police. The debate over kosher standards has intensified since the May 12 raid at the plant, in which 389 illegal immigrants, the majority from Guatemala, were detained. Reports by many of those workers of widespread labor violations in the plant have been prominent news in the Jewish media, provoking discussion of whether Jews should buy meat and poultry products made there.