“The town of Postville, Iowa, population 2,000, has been turned into an open-air prison. Jerry Johnson, who works at nearby Luther College, called it something out of a bad science-fiction movie or the kind of thing a 1930s totalitarian regime might have cooked up. ‘This was not only a grievous injustice but a shame on the state of Iowa and the federal government,’ said Mr. Johnson. ‘These were good, decent people who were also the most defenseless.’ On May 12, immigration officials swooped in to arrest 400 undocumented workers from Mexico and Guatemala at the local meat-packing plant, a raid 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 leave the town, and to make sure they do not they have been outfitted with leg monitoring bracelets. ‘The women are effectively prisoners,’ said Father Paul Ouderkirk at St. Bridget’s Roman Catholic Church. ‘The difference between them and anybody who is in jail is that in jail the government pays for them, but if they’re on the streets we pay for them.’” (08/16/08)