We spent Saturday afternoon and evening in Postville, talking with passersby on the street; eating at Sabor Latino, a restaurant on S. Lawler Street, the main street in town; attending the Spanish language mass at St. Bridget�s church; and having a lengthy conversation with Fr. Paul Ouderkirk, who came out of retirement to help the village of Postville in the wake of this crisis. Below is just a bit of what we heard:
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�I�ve lived here almost my whole life. But the young people, they move away. We�re a dwindling town�there are maybe only six local families of childbearing age. Everyone moves on. It�s sad when there�s no one to replace you�I think there needs to be reform. I mean, it�s really the government that�s at fault. This plant�s been here 19 years, and they only do this now? Why now? And these people�okay, they�re not supposed to be here, but they�re here to do work, work that needs to be done, really hard work, six days a week, even on Sunday. It�s really been a very trying time.�
--a lifelong resident of Postville, age 71, commenting on the raid at Agriprocessors
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�The trauma they faced of not knowing where their loved ones were�a lot of them come from Guatemala, with a history of �the disappeared.� And you can�t imagine how that trauma came back to them with these raids. They didn�t know where their husbands were. And the floods didn�t help�three of the county jails flooded, and they moved the workers around, and no one knew where they were. The families stayed here at the church; we kept trying to reassure them that their husbands were safe, but they were afraid, they didn�t believe us, they just shook their heads.�
--Sr. Jane McCarthy, St. Bridget�s Catholic Church, on how the raids affected the families of the detained workers
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"I would never buy their meat; I mean, it�s good quality, but they treat people like slaves. My paycheck the last three weeks? Zero zero zero. They keep taking my money! They pay me $10 an hour, but they take out the taxes, they take out for my housing, and the last three weeks it�s zero zero zero. That guy down there? He got his check, it was $2.99; well, it costs $3.00 to cash your check, so he had to shell out a penny! Damn!�
--Dwayne, a rather expressive Dubuque resident who was recruited by Jacobson, the employment agency tasked by Agriprocessors to refill its depleted workforce. (Check out upcoming photo and video downloads from Postville for the full effect of Dwayne�s exuberant personality)
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"I saw a report by Amy Goodman and she said that all these Mexicans and Guatemalans were taken away with shackles on their hands and feet and they�re treating them like criminals�the women can�t work and how are they feeding their children? so I�ll help fill out forms or do something�if there�s something I can do in the short or long term to help these women.�
--Cindy, a woman who was moved to come to Postville to see if there was anything she could do to help out in the wake of the crisis that turned the town upside down
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�Since the raids, there�s been no work; they took everyone and the few that are left are moving away. I knew basically everybody. They say they�re doing all right in jail or otherwise they�ve gone back to where they came from but some of them we�re not really sure what became of them. Before the raids, people basically got along and even though there�s nothing to do here, people got along and there were more things around, like more stores; but after the raids it�s been dead�Every time there are raids, it reduces the economy and everything gets worse.�
--A Guatemalan man we met on the street in Postville; much thanks to road trip team member John Croes for translating.
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�Neither senator has come here�Our governor? He�s like a church mouse. You hear him but never see him�[Every elected official] should just hang their heads in shame.�
--Fr. Paul Oudekirk, decrying the lack of responsiveness by elected officials to the crisis facing Postville.
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