JCUA Statement on Postville immigration raid

The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs is deeply concerned about the recent raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on the AgriProcessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa.

As a Jewish organization committed to social and economic justice, we are greatly disturbed by reports of this Jewish-owned company's alleged abuse of employees and mistreatment of animals.  Jewish law is very specific as to fair treatment of workers, as well as setting forth specific methodologies for the treatment and slaughter of animals for kosher consumption. The health and safety violations, with which AgriProcessors has been charged, are an embarrassment to the entire Jewish community.
     
However, we likewise are outraged by the manner in which the immigration raid was conducted and by its devastating impact on the more than 300 people it has detained and on their families, which were left unable to pay for housing, food or legal fees.

Immigration experts, sitting legislators -- and both presumptive 2008 presidential candidates -- have openly stated that the U.S. immigration system is inconsistent, ineffective and inhumane.

Major U.S. industries are run on the backs of immigrant workers -- underpaid, uninsured, unprotected individuals -- and the capricious ICE round-ups, incarceration and deportation of these workers represent further abuses of their human rights.

We appreciate this nation's need for a comprehensive immigration policy that serves the United States' social, economic, humanitarian and security interests. We beseech our federal officials to focus on swift creation and enactment of such a policy. Meanwhile, we deplore such random attacks as the one that took place in Postville on May 12, 2008.

June 2008
Chicago, Illinois