Immigration raid leaves damaging mark on Postville, Iowa

“Since the landmark raid, an economic squeeze has destroyed several businesses. Postville’s population has shrunk by nearly half, to about 1,800 residents, and townsfolk say the resulting anxiety — felt from the deli to the schoolyard — has been relentless.

“It’s like you’re in an oven and there’s no place to go and there’s no timer to get you out,” said former Mayor Robert Penrod, who, overwhelmed, resigned earlier this year….

Roy Beck, head of the Washington-based NumbersUSA group that advocates for reducing immigration, argued that Postville invited its problems by relying so heavily on a plant many suspected was violating labor and immigration laws.

“The situation should have never gotten to that point,” he said. “If you don’t enforce the laws steadily, then when you suddenly enforce them, there is more collateral damage….””

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-postville-iowa12-2009may12,0,6761812.storyAntonio Olivo, LA Times, 12 May 2009