Advertisement Federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, raided Agriprocessors Inc. and detained almost 400 immigrants, most from Guatemala.
Two helicopters hovered overhead. People fled to find sanctuary in St. Bridget Catholic Church.
Chuck Berendes, an immigration attorney for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of
La Crosse, traveled to Postville last week and described what he saw as a natural disaster without the natural disaster.
“It looked exactly the same as Gays Mills last summer, except there was no mud to shovel out of anyone’s house,” Berendes said, referring to the flooding that forced evacuations in there. “(In Postville) there are people milling around with no idea of what the near future holds for them. … The church is sheltering and feeding people. Volunteers are coming, trying to help people locate people detained.”
Catholic social teaching
recognizes the dignity of the human person and respects the family, Berendes said.
“They recognize in the Bible how vulnerable people are when they’re immigrants and when they’re traveling.”
So when he heard about the raid in Postville, Berendes called the Archdiocese of Dubuque and asked if he could help.
When he got to Postville, he did what he could.
He listened to stories, such as that of a Guatemalan woman in California who received a phone call from her sister-in-law, a Postville resident, on the day of the raid. Sirens and helicopters blared in the background during the call. The sister-in-law ran with her child to the church, not knowing where her husband was. The woman in California, who is scheduled to become a citizen soon, got in her car and drove to Postville.
Berendes also met a boy in fourth grade who was brought to the United States when he was 3 and so is here illegally and his sister in second grade, who is here legally. Neither read Spanish. Neither knew where their mom was.
In courts, almost 300 immigrants took plea deals that put most in federal custody for five months. When they get out, they face deportation.
That penalty far outweighs the violation, Berendes said.
“What is the family supposed to do for five months when Dad isn’t working anymore and when he gets out he doesn’t go home, he goes to Guatemala?” he asked. “There’s supposed to be laws. There should be laws. But we’re talking about keeping families connected, which is what United States immigration law has been about for a long time.”
In the church in Postville, Berendes listened to questions:
Where is my dad, my mom, my wife, my brother?
How do I pay rent when the breadwinner of our family is locked up?
Can my kids stay in public school if my husband is deported?
If we get the money, can we buy an airplane ticket and send my wife home so she doesn’t have to go to prison?
And he asked himself questions, such as, what would it take for his relative to get in a car and drive across the country to him.
As Berendes talked about the families in Postville on Thursday night, he smoked a cigar with his brother and friend to celebrate his new son, whom his wife gave birth to the previous day.
Berendes spends his days working on immigrant cases in the Diocese of La Crosse,
covering 19 counties in west- central Wisconsin. He told of farmers seeking his help in making their workers legal, and he told of employers in Norwalk, Arcadia, Richland Center and Sparta who
wouldn’t be operating if it weren’t for immigrant labor.
What happened in Postville could easily happen in these places, he said.
“To treat people as violent criminals because they’ve worked without the right papers, that’s not reasonable,” Berendes said. “And there’s a huge human cost. And how do we prepare for that?”
Joe Orso can be reached
at jorso@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8429.
