One of the largest workplace immigration raids in recent US history took place in Iowa last week, not that you would know it from the paucity of national media coverage. Could the lack of interest have anything to do with the fact that the company involved was a kosher meat processing plant called Agriprocessors, rather than say Wal-Mart?

My friend Ben Harris, who reports for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, has been in Iowa covering the fallout from the raid since the weekend. Federal officials had to set up a makeshift courthouse in the small town of Postville, Iowa, (pop: 2,273) in order to try, process and eventually deport almost 400 mainly Latin American illegal immigrants, including almost 20 juveniles, many of whom were being paid just $5 an hour.

Here’s an excerpt from Ben’s latest dispatch:

In recent days, former employees have been painting a picture of a company indifferent to federal laws prohibiting slaughterhouses from employing workers younger than 18 and where workers frequently were pressured to exchange sexual favors for preferred treatment.

[...]The company…has been dogged by allegations of worker mistreatment, environmental offenses, and food and safety violations at its flagship plant.

[...]A girl who would agree to be identified only as Yolanda said she was 15 years old when she left her home in Iztapa, Guatemala, late last year and illegally crossed the U.S. border into Texas. Within weeks she had arrived in Postville, where she found work in the Agriprocessors plant.

Yolanda told JTA that she produced a fake government ID card that showed her to be 18 years old. She pulled 11-hour graveyard shifts bagging chicken breasts and removing turkey feathers — difficult work that she said led to a hand injury from constant use of scissors. Supervisors routinely pressured the workers to move faster, she said.

“They were constantly pushing us and forcing us to work faster,” Yolanda said through a translator. “They were very abusive, screaming a lot.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Agriprocessors has denied any wrongdoing.

UPDATE: Thanks to Arieh for emailing a list of links to media outlets covering the Agriprocessors story, including one piece in the New York Times on May 13 written by a staffer and an AP piece published in the Times on May 17. Though I take Arieh’s point that this story is being covered by a number of news outlets, I am still struck by the fact that the story is still largely confined to local media, as you can see from the Google News results. (Though the Washington Post, to their credit, have followed up with another story today.) I’m actually surprised our friend Lou Dobbs isn’t all over this one. Maybe I missed something.

Related
Immigration Raid Jars a Small Town (WaPo)
As Agriprocessors scrambles to keep plant open, former workers speak out (JTA)
In Iowa, Coping With Raid Fallout (JTA)