Mayor: Feds turned my town 'topsy turvy'Oct 14, 2008
"You can corner this one plant with federal agents and deport people. That's one way to do it, but that's a good way to ruin towns -- ruin a small northeast Iowa place."
Since that day in May, the Latino population has dwindled.
The vice president of Palau has journeyed thousands of miles to Postville and offered about 160 of his countrymen for the open jobs at Agriprocessors. Residents of the island nation can legally live and work indefinitely in the United States under a special arrangement with the U.S. government.
Some from the Pacific island, where the average temperature year-round is 82 degrees, have already begun arriving. The rest will be coming soon, just in time for the frigid Iowa winter where temperatures dip below zero.
Another 125 Somali Muslims, legally classified as refugees, have already moved in. Many have come via the Minneapolis area, as well as Illinois and Texas.
"All of the Somalis came here to work at the plant," says Abdi Hasan, who came to the United States from Somalia five months ago. "I came to look for a job here."
He says they've been welcomed by the locals -- "no problems, no mistreatment, no nothing."
Hasan gets paid $10 an hour at the "kill house" at Agriprocessors, he says. His only complaint: Not being allowed to say Muslim prayers while at work.
"They don't allow it," he says. "That's a problem at times."
Mayor Penrod stands on the sidewalk outside his office. He looks out over Lawler Street, where big rigs rumble and cars freely move about.
"What do I love about my city? I love the progress we've made," he says.
But now, he says, "Everything is tension based."
"You can just sense the friction," he says. "I hope I'm wrong."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/14/postville.raid/index.html
