Catholic News Service Collection

A collection of news articles that cover the Postville community post-raid, written by the Catholic News Service, a news agency specializing in reporting religion and a primary source of national and world news that appears in the U.S. Catholic press.

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Sisters launch billboard campaign for immigration reform

Barb Arland-Fye

Catholic News Service article from Dec. 27, 2011: In anticipation of the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3, 10 communities of women religious in Iowa and nearby states bought billboards throughout Iowa to deliver a call for comprehensive immigration reform.
Guatemalan workers in Iowa reunite with family members they left behind

Carol Hoverman

Catholic News Service article from Dec. 29, 2010: More than two dozen Guatemalans were reunited in December with their family members, eight former Agriprocessors workers whom they had not seen in years.
Migration: Major social, economic force in Americas for years to come

Ezra Fieser

Catholic News Service article from Feb. 4, 2009: To escape war and poverty, Latin Americans will continue to flock to neighboring countries and to the United States for work and security, making migration a dominant economic and social force in the Americas for years to come, migration experts said.
Help given to immigrants affected by Iowa raid called faith in action

Joseph O'Brien

Catholic News Service article from May 18, 2009: After the first anniversary observance of the immigration raid in Postville May 12, Archbishop Jerome G. Hanus of Dubuque said he hoped the event would show the world that faith in Christ ended in action.
Immigration reform next up on bishops' wish list for Congress

Nancy Frazier O'Brien

Catholic News Service article from Nov. 25, 2009: Over the years, hundreds of thousands of postcards have come from U.S. Catholics in organized efforts to influence members of Congress on issues ranging from partial-birth abortion to human cloning to health care reform.
American dream still shines for women detained in Postville raid

Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service article from Apr. 27, 2009: When Marta Veronica Cumez Solovi was driven to the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville where she once worked, she said she had a sense of dread about going back there.
Bishops discuss joys, challenges of shepherding rural dioceses

Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service article from May 6, 2009: Demographics may be the biggest challenge to bishops in rural-dominant dioceses.
Clergy, religious offer perspectives on aftermath of Postville raid

Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service article from May 1, 2009: Reverberations from the immigration raid in Postville last May are still being felt in the town and throughout the Archdiocese of Dubuque, of which Postville is a part.
Community media makes big difference in small town

Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service article from Apr. 29, 2009: If you want to see the impact of low-power media, look no further than radio station KPVL-FM in Postville.
Priest came out of retirement to help meatpacking plant workers

Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service article from Apr. 29, 2009: Father Paul Ouderkirk has a nice house in northeastern Iowa where he was living in comfortable retirement, overseeing the banks of, as he calls it, "the mighty Missi-Sloppy."
Town's economy is hit hard after immigration raid

Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service article from May 1, 2009: When Father Paul Ouderkirk assumed the pastorate of St. Bridget Parish in Postville in 2000, he estimated the town's population at 2,000. Within a year, he said, it had grown to 2,500.
U.S. citizenship on horizon for former meatpacking plant worker

Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service article from Apr. 30, 2009: Elmer Herrera was detained, but not detained in the same way other immigrant residents of Postville were a year ago.
Cardinal, others discuss faith-based forces aligning on immigration

Patricia Zapor

Catholic News Service article from Sept. 22, 2009: The next phase in the drive for comprehensive immigration reform is taking root in parish basements, church sanctuaries and Jewish summer camps.
Court rulings, new policies seen as important changes for immigrants

Patricia Zapor

Catholic News Service article from May 6, 2009: The Supreme Court's unanimous decision May 4 that said the government was wrong to prosecute illegal immigrants for identity theft in certain types of cases was the latest of several rulings and policy announcements that will effectively roll back approaches on immigration initiated by the Bush administration.
In the immigration spotlight: Detention, immigrants' citizen children

Patricia Zapor

Catholic News Service article from Mar. 27, 2009: A pair of reports released in March lay out some of the data behind efforts seeking changes in immigration policies, long before Congress gets around to considering another comprehensive immigration bill.
Iowa, other raids rallying points in push for immigration changes

Patricia Zapor

Catholic News Service article from May 12, 2009: A year ago a dramatic workplace immigration raid turned the town of Postville, Iowa, on its head, with the arrest of 389 immigrant workers rippling through to most of the town's 2,300 residents, straining resources and ultimately leading to closed businesses around town.
Report: Even before immigration reform, why not try these changes

Patricia Zapor

Catholic News Service article from Feb. 13, 2009: Whether a comprehensive immigration reform bill makes it to the front of Congress' agenda any time soon, there are plenty of things the three federal immigration-related agencies can do in the meantime to deal with some problems, according to a new study.
People at interfaith prayer service, rally urge justice for migrants

Barb Arland-Fye

Catholic News Service article from Aug. 1, 2008: Inside a Catholic church in northeast Iowa July 27, a rabbi from Chicago pondered the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty at a gathering of 500 people of various faiths.
Iowa community rallies to help families after raids

Dave Cushing

Catholic News Service article from May 28, 2008: As the people arrested in a May 12 immigration raid in Iowa were processed and sent off to prison or deported, church leaders, pastoral ministers and community organizers in northeast Iowa struggled with what they called the tragic and devastating effects of the enforcement action.
Nobel winner listens to testimony of workers rounded up in Iowa raid

Carol Hoverman

Catholic News Service article from Nov. 19, 2008: She came from Guatemala to Postville for one purpose.

"I have come to listen specifically to the testimonies of the people who have suffered abuses here from the raid," Rigoberta Menchu said. "I come not only to listen to your suffering, but also to identify with your suffering. Your pain is my pain."

So began the message of the 1992 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in human rights, first in Guatemala and now on the international stage.
Bishops seek end to immigration enforcement raids

Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service article from Sep. 10, 2008: - If federal immigration officials cannot create more "humane" conditions when making enforcement raids against undocumented immigrants, then "these enforcement raids should be abandoned," said Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration.
Panelists discuss how news media look at poverty issues

Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service article from Jun. 10, 2008: The news media look at poverty issues -- when they bother to look at all -- with a negative connotation, according to the co-author of one study.
Conference examines Homeland Security's handling of immigration

Patricia Zapor

Catholic News Service article from May 21, 2008: Five years after the Department of Homeland Security was created as an umbrella agency, its handling of immigration-related situations came in for harsh criticism at an immigration law and policy conference May 20.
ICE head touts common ground with church, avoids talk of differences

Patricia Zapor

Catholic News Service article from Jul. 30, 2008: The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, had to know she was stepping in front of a potentially challenging audience when she agreed to speak to the 2008 National Migration Conference, co-sponsored by four Catholic organizations that aid refugees and immigrants.
Investment banker's little bond fund goes nationwide for immigrants

Patricia Zapor

Catholic News Service article from Aug. 13, 2008: Massachusetts investment banker and philanthropist Robert Hildreth's success in business means Luis Delgado, a Mexican immigrant arrested in an immigration crackdown on a Maryland roofing company June 30, will get to be with his wife and children for the months it will take his legal case to be adjudicated.
Iowa town stretching resources to help families hurt by ICE raid

Patricia Zapor

Catholic News Service article from Jul. 30, 2008: Father Richard Gaul, from St. Bridget's Parish in Postville, Iowa, said that in the more than two months since the largest single-business immigration raid in history hit their town, the situation for many people has gone from bad to worse.
Repercussions of immigration raid felt far beyond Iowa

Patricia Zapor

Catholic News Service article from May 23, 2008: An immigration raid May 12 in Iowa may have taken place in tiny Postville, but its repercussions are being felt as far away as Washington and Guatemala.