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Immigration Battle Splitting Locals in Iowa

This rural town's reservoir of neighborly good will has been drained in recent weeks by an increasingly personal debate about the immigrants lining up for work at the local slaughterhouse — the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant.

At a packed town council meeting June 12, seven local clergy members, including a rabbi, issued a statement that denounces members of the town council for making critical comments about the Mexicans, Guatemalans and Jews who work at the slaughterhouse.

A few weeks earlier, the council's most vocal anti-immigrant member, Jeff Reinhardt, wrote in the local paper that the town's Hispanics have "a lack of respect for our laws and culture which contributes to unwed mothers, trash in the streets, unpaid bills, drugs, forgery, and other crimes." He also criticized what he described as the isolated ways of Postville's Hasidic Jews.

The town of Postville was upended and remade by the arrival of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidim who came to town in 1989 to open AgriProcessors. Just as the dust was

settling from their arrival, Hispanic workers began showing up to look for jobs. In total, over the past decade, 500 to 1,000 have come — almost doubling the town's population and significantly altering its ethnic mix.

While this dose of diversity seemed to be going down smoothly for a number of years — after a number of initial clashes — last fall's council elections saw four of five seats go to candidates, including Reinhardt, who were openly critical of the town's changing face. Since then, the council has scaled back relations with AgriProcessors. It also has cut funding for the local visitors center that had worked with the Hispanic immigrants.

http://www.forward.com/articles/8016