wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 290-Iowa faith leaders speak out for immigrant workers

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Iowa faith leaders speak out for immigrant workers

>Jul. 11, 2008

NOTE: Photographs and audio are available with this story at
http://umns.umc.org.

>A UMNS Report By Kathy L. Gilbert*

United Methodist Bishop Gregory Palmer and other faith leaders are
calling on churches to advocate for better treatment of low-wage workers
helping with flood relief in Iowa.

Christian faith commands the church to speak out in ways that lessen
fear and show God's love for everyone, said Palmer, who leads the
denomination's Iowa Area.

He spoke during a July 10 telephone press conference organized by
Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. He was joined by
bishops and pastors from the Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America and United Church of Christ.

The religious leaders also condemned the U.S. government's handling of a
May 12 raid at a kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, which
resulted in the arrest of nearly 400 undocumented workers.

>Calloused hands

The Rev. Catherine Quehl-Engel, the Episcopal priest who brought the
plight of the relief workers into the public eye, participated in the
press conference. Quehl-Engel is chaplain at United Methodist
related-Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, where the immigrants were
first housed. In an article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, she had
reported incidents of workers traveling on a bus for 14 hours without
food, tetanus shots, bedding or towels for showering.

In the press conference, she described the workers as "the calloused
hands of Christ" during Iowa's time of need.

The workers received $15 a day for food and expenses and less than
minimum wage compensation, according to Quehl-Engel, who also
participated in the July 10 press conference. She said workers toiled in
"toxic environments" 14-hour days, seven days a week, and had to pay
back a temporary employment agency $49 a week for the school bus gas
needed to get to the worst flooded areas in Iowa.

The religious leaders want Iowa lawmakers to pass legislation protecting
the immigrant and other low-wage workers, according to the Des Moines
Register. The paper noted that thousands of workers-primarily minorities
and immigrants-have been recruited from cities around the United States
as well as Central America. A spokesperson for Iowa's Department of
Workforce Development said the state would be investigating complaints
filed on behalf of the workers.

Palmer said he and the other church leaders have been asked why they are
inserting themselves into public policy. "People say, 'you are not
experts.' We are involved as the sign and symbol of God's love for all
people."

"We are concerned that we would substitute any level of fear mongering
... for the hard work of getting a humane and just immigration policy,"
he said.

>Families torn apart

The religious leaders also focused on the aftermath of the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at Agriprocessors Inc. in
Postville.

Bishop Steven L. Ullestad, Northeastern Iowa Synod of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, said Postville was his hometown.

The May 12 raid on the kosher plant "was an invasion by the U.S.
government" of the community, he said. "Hundreds of agents with guns and
dogs removed people from the plant in handcuffs." Many children spent
the first 72 hours after the raid not knowing what had happened to their
parents, he said.

Families were torn apart and left with no income, the bishop said.
Forty-two women and two men are still shackled with electronic
monitoring devices on their ankles and cannot go to work or leave the
state. Hundreds of others are in prison and probably will be deported,
he said.

Ullestad said people in Postville were left asking, "Why did the
government decide to destroy our town?"

Bishop Alan Scarfe, Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, suggested Postville was
chosen because "Iowa is so homogeneously white, that ...(it) is not seen
as a community of protest."

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has described the
operation as "the largest criminal worksite enforcement operation in
U.S. history."

"(Government) policies have increased the level of fear," Palmer said,
"and have literally terrorized the lives of people and torn apart
families."

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in
Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470
or newsdesk@umcom.org.

>********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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