Graduate Student Work
Work/Availability
Open Access Graduate Student Work
Type of Work
Paper
Keywords
Postville Immigration Raid, Postville, Iowa, 2008; Illegal immigration--Iowa--Postville;
Abstract
Prior to May 2008, Postville, like many other small towns in Iowa, was relatively obscure. The town's claim to fame had been Stephen Bloom's Postville: A Clash of Culture in the Heartland published in 2000 and the corresponding PBS documentary "Postville: When Cultures Collide. Both highlighted the growing diversity as Hasidic Jews made Postville their home, a shtetl in rural Iowa. The Rubashkin family brought rabbis and their families to Postville in 1987 in order to reopen the defunct Hygrade building as a kosher slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant. As the newly named Agriprocessors grew, managers sought employees who were willing to work long, strenuous hours for little pay. Because of the low wages and questionable working conditions, Iowa natives did not want to work at Agriprocessors, and recent immigrants to the United States and undocumented workers filled the employment gap.
Date of Work
2013
Department
Department of History
Repository
UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa
Copyright
©2013 RaeAnn Swanson
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Swanson, RaeAnn, "Bending rules and breaking hearts: The Postville raid and its constitutional shortcomings" (2013). Graduate Student Work. 1.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/gswork/1
