After Raid, Postville Deals with Somali Immigrants

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By Becky Ogann

Story Created: Jul 29, 2008 at 9:49 AM CST

Story Updated: Jul 29, 2008 at 10:05 AM CST

POSTVILLE (AP) - Scores of Somali immigrants are taking jobs at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville.

They are replacing Hispanic workers arrested in a huge immigration raid on May 12.

Before the raid, hundreds of Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants maintained a vibrant community in Postville, a largely white community of 2,200 people in northeast Iowa.

The influx of Somalis has been met with some surprise in a community still bewildered by the Agriprocessors raid.

It's not the first cultural change in Postville. The slaughterhouse attracted eastern Europeans in the 1990s, including immigrants from Bosnia, Poland, Russia and former Soviet Republics. Hispanics became the majority in the last decade.

The result is that a town that is home to people from 24 nationalities speaking 17 languages.

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