In the meantime, leaders in some communities that already have experienced immigration raids are saying they hope the rest of the nation will learn from their painful experiences. In Greenville, S.C., for example, Foothills Presbytery and a number of local congregations have been at the heart of the response following a raid during a shift change at the Columbia Farms chicken processing plant. Immigration and police officers detained about 330 men and women – some of them weeping and screaming, trying frantically to call on their cell phones to make arrangements for someone to take care of their children.
In the months since then, churches have played a key role in assisting the families of immigrants caught up in the raid. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) provided $10,000 in emergency assistance, much of which has been used to provide food, provide legal assistance, and pay the rent and utility costs of the immigrant families.
According to Bill Lancaster, associate executive for new church development in the presbytery, many of the men captured in the raid were taken to detention centers in other states, where some of them signed papers agreeing to be deported. Some of the women were allowed to return to their homes, wearing ankle monitoring bracelets, to care for their children until court proceedings were complete.
Greenville in some ways was better prepared than many communities for a raid, because since 2005 Foothills Presbytery has been involved in a local network of churches and community agencies, all of which work with Hispanic immigrants and meet regularly. That group, the Alianza para la Colaboración en la Comunidad Hispana (Alliance for Collaboration with the Hispanic Community), includes representatives from local churches, the Red Cross, hospitals, educational groups, the police, and other community agencies.
A Hispanic fellowship of about 30 people has been meeting at John Calvin Church in Greenville, worshipping on Sunday afternoons in the sanctuary. The church also hosts an English as a Second Language program and has held health fairs, at which volunteer doctors have conducted health screenings and made referrals to a local clinic.
And the coalition has helped inform immigrants of their rights; the South Carolina legislature passed a strict new law in the spring of 2008 that could temporarily shut down or impose fines on businesses hiring illegal immigrants. Worried about that, and about the slumping economy, some of the immigrants from Greenville — many of whom had worked in housing construction — began moving away to try to find jobs elsewhere.
With the raid, however, everything changed.
Aware that families had been split up by the raid and that some of the immigrants were frantic, not knowing where their relatives had been taken or what would happen to them, the Greenville network began trying to identify who had been affected and what their needs were.
Using Spanish-speaking volunteers, the network put out the word that assistance was being organized and asked families caught up in the raid to come to a meeting at John Calvin church. There, Catholic Charities set up tables to screen each family — to find out, in part, the status of their legal cases and what kind of assistance with daily expenses they needed. The weather was turning cold; the women from the plant had lost their jobs and many of their husbands were locked up. More than 100 people came that day, including 58 workers from the poultry plant wearing ankle bracelets.
Catholic Charities gave out about $10,000 in assistance, and each family got a box of food from the local food bank Harvest of Hope. For $500, the network can buy half of a truckload of food including canned food, rice, and staples.
After that first session, Lancaster contacted Presbyterian Disaster Assistance – and within hours had received the promise of what would become $10,000 in aid. “I was blown away by this; it was so quick and so responsive,” Lancaster said.
What lies ahead is unclear. Some of those caught in the raid may be involuntarily deported; others are waiting for a hearing with a federal judge in February or March. Some have children born in this country who are U.S. citizens.
“The family is separated,” Lancaster said. “They can’t work. We’re trying to keep them from becoming homeless as they go through the court process.”
In Greenville, as in many cities, immigration policy is a controversial issue, and “the political climate in South Carolina is extremely negative toward the Hispanics, towards the undocumented folks,” he said. Some do not think churches should get involved in helping illegal immigrants.
But “we believe Jesus Christ wants us to do this,” Lancaster said. “Yes, these people are undocumented, they’ve broken a law coming into this country. But they are human beings who are our neighbors, they work among us, they live among us, they’re right next to us. … Jesus said, ‘As you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it to me.’ So it’s clear in our minds that these people, whether they are sick or hungry or naked or in prison, are people Jesus wants us to be in ministry with.”
Iowa raid
In Postville in northeast Iowa, the raid took place on May 12, at the Agriprocessors Inc. kosher meatpacking plant, at which nearly 400 people were arrested.
In a recent telephone news conference, local church leaders from Postville called on the Obama administration and Congress to pass effective immigration reform and to stop the tactic of using immigration raids.
Postville has been economically devastated by the raid, with the Agriprocessors plant having drastically cut back its operations and many established businesses suffering or closing, said Paul Rael, director for Hispanic ministry at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church.
“May 12 changed everything in Postville,” said Stephen Brackett, pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. “We’ve had nothing but chaos since the raid happened,” and it’s been churches — in this case, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Catholic — that have carried the heaviest load in trying to help the immigrant families. “It’s ridiculous,” Brackett said, “to expect our churches to bear the brunt of the humanitarian issues caused by the raids.”
In the news conference, the speakers encouraged Congressional representatives to come to Postville and to learn from what’s happened there. The current immigration policy is “a very broken system,” Brackett said. “It’s a system that harms families, that hurts communities, and it really assigns blame to all the wrong places.”
And he said “Postville is an incredible example of the aftermath and the effects of an immigration raid. Legislators can learn a great deal by coming here,” before the immigrants caught up in the raid are deported or leave to try to find other work.
One of those speaking in the Dec. 10 conference call, which was organized by the group Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, was a woman who was arrested in the raid, who spoke through a translator and who did not give her real name, because she has a legal case pending.
She said she started working at the Agriprocessors plant at age 14 and “it was a very difficult job.” But she stayed because “I had a big necessity to work.”
When the immigration officers stormed the plant, the woman called Rael on her cell phone to ask him to take care of her two daughters. “We just came to work looking for a better future for our children,” she said.
“I hope everybody understands that it’s very sad to be in this position. Because we have nothing to help ourselves, we have no jobs. We only receive help from the church.” Her children do not want to go to Mexico, and fear she will be arrested again, she said. “I just hope that all these months that we have been suffering will serve as an example to other communities, so they can learn from us.”
Violeta Aleman formerly worked at the Agriprocessors plant and was there when the raid occurred.
A college graduate and native of Mexico, she was hired to work in quality assurance at the plant, and she trained some of the immigrant workers.
“Ever since that day, it has been bad,” Aleman said, her voice breaking. “I see their children and I see how much they suffer. I just don’t think this is right. I just hope the new president elected will help us. They have suffered month after month, with their bracelets on. Living off charity — they are not used to that. They are embarrassed, but they have no other choice.”
