Community & Economy of Postville Struggle to Recover

By Mark Geary, Reporter

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By Daren Sukhram

Story Created: May 12, 2009 at 10:44 PM CDT

Story Updated: May 13, 2009 at 12:39 AM CDT

POSTVILLE - The community and economy of Postville are still struggling to recover one year after the massive immigration raid there. Federal agents arrested 389 illegal immigrants at Postville's Agriprocessors plant, helping push that company into bankruptcy. Since then, Postville's mayor says the town's population has fallen from 2,800, to about 1,800 people. There was a lot of activity as hundreds paraded through Postville to the meat-packing plant. Even though a year has passed, people at the march feel Postville remains paralyzed by the historic raid. "I'm ashamed of Iowa. I was born in Iowa. I'm ashamed of the officials here who have done nothing but sit and talk about it," said marcher Sally Ybarra. The walk gave everyone a chance to reflect on the chaos, tears and heartache that continue to haunt this small Iowa town. The public demonstration makes a big statement, but everyone realizes it's only a small step toward changing immigration laws. "I hope it won't be all over today. I hope we'll continue to talk about immigration and to think about making changes that will help everyone," says marcher Jennifer Cooley. When the marchers finally reached Agriprocessors, clergy recited a few prayers, blessed the crowd and asked everyone to keep fighting for immigration reform. E-mail Mark Geary at Mark.Geary@kcrg.com or follow him on Twitter.

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