Re: ACLU & Client, MxGov, To Sue Ice For Being Anti-Semetic

It appears the, now, Mexican Civil Liberties Union is wrong.

There was plenty of time for the illegals to call them (their lawyers)
and most like did, by the hundreds:

Immigration raid: Town's Hispanics shutter businesses, scatter
By NIGEL DUARA
nduara@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 13, 2008


Postville, Ia. - The phone calls started at 5 a.m. They carried the
same message:

Immigration was coming.

Paul Real, a lay pastor at the Ministerio Hispano, said his phone was
ringing off the hook.

"Calls have been flying around," he said Monday morning. "There are
rumors everywhere."

Twelve hours later, Hispanic businesses in downtown Postville were
shuttered. Locks held the door at El Sabor Latino grocery store and
restaurant. Bowls of chips and salsa were abandoned along with a half-
empty bottle of Coke.

At the Postville Bakery and Restaurant - which also goes by La
Panederia y Pasteleria - a sign in the doorway said, "We will be
closed at 11 a.m. today."

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at the Agriprocessors
Inc. plant scattered the Hispanics of Postville. About 400 found their
way to St. Bridget's Catholic Church, waiting for information. Some
filled out G-28 forms that allow a lawyer to represent their detained
children or minors in their care.

A woman who would identify herself only as Judy said she and her
husband work at Agriprocessors. The last time she saw him was before
his ****ft Monday, about 5:30 a.m.

"No, I don't know where he is," she said in Spanish.

Judy said she and her husband came from Mexico illegally. Like many
others at St. Bridget's, they regard the church as a haven from law
enforcement.

Asked whether the church would indeed be a safe place, Sister Mary
McCauley of St. Bridget's said, "That is our belief and hope."

"It's a place to get family convened," she said.

The Postville Community School District assembled all its Hispanic
students to ensure they each had a parent or caregiver at home.

Superintendent David Strudhoff said those whose parents could be
located would be allowed to go home. For the rest, elementary and
middle-schoolers were paired with high school students and separated
into groups.

Sitting on the floor, surrounded by 12 children, a counselor who
declined to be identified tried to determine which children needed to
be sent home.

"What's your name? Where do you need to go?" she asked one. To
another, "You're safe at the church."

By Monday night, all of the kids at the church had been paired with
parents or caregivers.

Care workers brought fruit juice, diapers, Cheetos and animal crackers
to St. Bridget's. Alma Gonzalez's 2-year-old, Cristan, munched happily
on a plate stocked high with chips.

"We don't know anything right now," she said.

Gonzalez said her husband works on a farm in Monona. She went to the
church because she came to this country illegally from Guatemala and
thought St. Bridget's would be safe.

Eight months pregnant, she's due to have a girl in June.

Standing outside the Agriprocessors plant, Adolfo Calderon said he
tried to put himself in the shoes of someone here illegally.

He has friends who work at the plant, he said, most of whom are in
America legally, but he feared for the families who might be
separated.

"They shouldn't do this," Calderon said. "I understand it's a legal
(issue) and they're trying to do their job, but what happens to these
poor families?"

Adolfo Calderon, 15, said his father manages apartments in the town.
With the raid, those apartments could be cleared out and his father
could be put out of business.

Hidie Roach, a teller at Citizens State Bank in Postville, said the
raid gives the town a bad name.

The town needs the packing plant, Roach said. "I think a lot of people
will leave."

At St. Bridget's on Monday night, Real, the lay pastor, fielded calls,
answered questions and handed out pamphlets advising immigrants of
their rights while trying to keep about 400 people clothed, sheltered
and fed.

His wife, holding the phone to her ear, said a caller was offering
food. Did they need it?

Real, without looking up from his desk, answered quickly.

"Say yes."