Rally for Immigration Reform in Postville

POSTVILLE, IA [KWWL] — An immigration rally has kicked off in Postville with protesters shouting “Si se puede,” translated in English as “yes, we can.”

Hundreds of people marched through the small Iowa town of about 2,200 on Sunday. Busloads of people from Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul and other nearby cities came to protest a federal immigration raid of the Agriprocessors plant in May.

More pictures and a number of videos in the Extended Article!

The march, which kicked off with a religious ceremony, is expected to reach the plant on the outskirts of town.

Marchers were met by a counter-protest of about 75 anti-immigration activists.

Nearly 400 people were during the raid of the plant, which is the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the United States.

The afternoon rally in Postville brought out strong emotions from thousands of people. Lawler Street acted as a barrier between two groups with very different viewpoints on immigration reform.

Several groups traveled thousands of miles to talk about the negative effect of immigration raids on families and communities.

“What Postville represented was the use of criminal laws to criminalize people who are here simply to support their families. No one was here to do any harm to the country, and yet they’re in jail to be deported,” Gideon Aronoff, president of Hebrew Immigration Aid Society, said. “It represents the failure of the federal government and the dumping of this problem onto the backs of the workers and on to the backs of local communities like Postville. So, this is about Postville, but it’s also about the national disgrace of our broken immigration system.”

The group chanted and marched through the streets to Agriprocessors, the site of the May 12 raid. The owner’s grandson discussed the raid’s effect on the company’s reputation.

“A lot of the stuff is allegations that have yet to be proven. A lot of the stuff is rumor, outright lies. There’s a lot of stuff out there just floating around,” Getzel Rubashkin said. To see more of the interview with Rubashkin, click here and select the video link on the left side of the page.

Dozens of people stood across from the rally protesting the demonstration. They want harsher enforcement of immigration laws.

“The American people need to know that the action that took place here with ICE needs to happen all over this country, and anyone who comes in here and steals the identities of American citizens needs to be prosecuted to the highest extent of the law. They need to be deported and never allowed back in this country again,” Susan Tully of the Federation for American Immigration Reform said.