Des Moines Register Takes on Major National Story that Nobody Notices

On Monday, May 12, Postville, a tiny town in Northeastern Iowa experienced the largest ICE raid in US history. 390 workers at North America’s largest Kosher meat processing plant were loaded into buses and taken away for a different kind of processing.

The Des Moines Register is providing excellent coverage of the traumatic upheaval this raid is visiting upon families and a whole community. The New York Times ran a short story on-line, and an AP story has been picked up by newspapers in some markets. But for the most part, national news coverage is conspicuously absent. The network and cable news giants are, as of today, totally silent on the story.

I have a question- how is it, when immigration is such a national hot-button issue, that the largest ICE raid to date remains nearly invisible?

We need to understand what is going on in Postville to have any kind of rational debate on immigration policy in America. An in-depth look at the unfolding story could revel so much about the complexity of the undocumented worker issue in American. This is a casebook study we are choosing to ignore. There is the story about declining population in Iowa, and the role newcomers have played in revitalizing a local economy.

There is the story of vibrant and sometimes difficult multiculturalism. How over the past two decades, about 100 Jewish families, mostly ultra-Orthodox Lubavitchers have employed thousands of immigrants from Eastern Europe, Israel, and Latin America. There is the story of the fine line immigrants and employers walk between employment for willing workers, and exploitation of workers in an underground economy.

But most importantly, there is the story of how immigrant families live in fear. There is the story of what families, schools, whole communities do to prepare for the unthinkable, of how this town is rallying to take care of vulnerable women and children whose lives have been thrown into chaos. When I watch this video, I see the valiant role the church is playing in this drama.

The number one survival strategy for undocumented immigrants is to remain as invisible as possible. And invisible they are. An enormous story with profound human rights, and economic importance is being ignored. This needs to stop. Those of us working in community media or on immigrant issues must insist on full coverage.

I am so grateful to the Des Moines Register for bearing witness. With their excellent coverage of a difficult story, the Des Moines Register presents a compelling case for the importance of high quality local media.