Researched by Caitlin Morgan                                                                                            Evaluated by Ronald Lopez, Ph.D.

The town of Postville, Iowa, population 2,000, was turned into an open-air prison on May 12^th of 2008 when immigration officials swooped in to arrest 400 undocumented workers from Mexico and Guatemala at the local meat-packing plant.  The raid was described as the biggest such action at a single site in U.S. history.  The raid left 43 women, wives of the men who were taken away, and their 150 children without status or a means of support.  The women cannot work or leave town, and to make sure they do not they have been outfitted with leg monitoring devices.  The men were charged and then sent to nine different prisons around the state.  Some of the men were deported and others are serving five-month prison terms for violating immigration laws – but no one ever explained why some were held and others deported.

“US Town Turned Into An Open-Air Prison” The National Post 8/16/08                                                                   http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/16/11032/

“Iowa Town Turned into “Open-Air Prison” as Wives of Men Arrested in Largest Immigration Raid in US History Forbidden to Work…or Leave” Democracy Now! August 20, 2008 http://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/20/iowa_town_turned_into_open_air

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