Postville detainee: ‘Congressmen, be our voice’

[annm4peace]

“When I eat vegetables, I know who harvested those vegetables,” Gutierrez told those who gathered Saturday morning in the fellowship hall at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville. “When I eat fruit, I know who’s hands last touched that fruit. When I enter a business and I step on the floor, I know who was there at 1 or 2 in the morning to clean it. When I got to a hotel to sleep, I know who cleaned and arranged that room. I know this in all aspects of my life: This is a human crisis.”


http://iowaindependent.com/2905/postville-detainee-congressmen-be-our-voice#comment-5670

While meeting with three U.S. congressmen may not have done anything to immediately alleviate the plight of the men, women and children immigrants who remain in Postville, it did allow them to release some frustrations.


Postville children sit in front of one of the homemade signs during the meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Just over 40 women, originally detained in the unprecedented May 12 immigration raid on the town’s kosher meatpacking plant, were released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement back into the town on humanitarian grounds to either care for children or for medical conditions. The women, along with three men similarly released, were fitted with ankle tracking devices. The Hispanic Caucus, all traveling at their own expense, came to eastern Iowa to hear their stories.

The congressional group was led by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat and chairman of the caucus’s immigration task force. He was joined by Rep. Joe Baca, a California Democrat and chairman of the caucus, and Rep. Albio Sires, a New Jersey Democrat and chairman of the caucus’s task force on economic development.