In wake of ICE raids, devastated communities and broken families by lisabelkin
When Harry Pangemanan heard about the immigration raids on meat packing plants in Mississippi last week, it brought back memories of another raid, 13 years ago. Of hours spent hiding under a bed with his pregnant wife and toddler daughter, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents banged on doors, climbed through windows and took away three dozen of his neighbors in Avenel, N.J., in windowless vans.
In an article five years after that raid, the Salt Lake Tribune did an update on the town of Hyrum, and estimated that four out of 10 of those deported managed to return illegally, many living in even more precarious economic straits than they had before, because they could not find work. As for the six in 10 who didn’t come back, most represented a family torn apart.
Over the next few months, more than 1,000 people left Postville, 20 percent of the population. Some left because they’d been deported, others because they feared they might be. Nearly all returned to Guatemala. The Jewish population of Postville was shattered as well, because nearly all the Jewish adults in town worked in the plant. Although they were citizens, they too lost their jobs as the plant struggled to stay in business.
Agriprocessors was sold and reopened under another name. Its workforce now includes some of those who returned on U visas and many Somali refugees, who replaced the ones who never came back. None of this surprises Pangemanan, who followed both these large raids, and countless smaller ones, from his home in New Jersey. His memories are vivid of the pre-dawn moment 13 years ago when, awakened by stomping, pounding and screaming in the garden apartment complex where he lived, along with other Indonesian-Christian immigrants fleeing persecution.
Indonesia Berita Terbaru, Indonesia Berita utama
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