Essential Estrogen

In a segment the network dubbed "Postville Blues," CBS Evening News (anchored by Forrest Saywer) highlighted the plight of some of some of the immigrants that remain in the community while wearing immigration tracking devices.

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The reporting does adequately describe the current circumstance surrounding the immigrant women and their children as well as the local churches -- especially St. Bridget's Catholic Church. Maria Lopez, one of the women wearing the ankle tracking devices, speaks through a translator to describe how plant workers were given new documentation for price. It was an arrangement that she says plant management was aware of and encouraged.

Although the text lead-up to the segment accurately described Agriprocessors as a kosher meatpacking plant, the word is used only once in the entire segment. A group of Hasidic Jews are shown very briefly toward the beginning of the clip as one of the crowd shots on the day of the raid.

I applaud CBS for its ability to get Agriprocessors' spokesman Chaim Abrahams to go on the record. That being said, however, having only a very secular-looking Abrahams on tape as the face of Agriprocessors doesn't provide an accurate picture of Postville or the plant, which is a kosher meatpacking plant run by strict Orthodox Jews.

In addition, the segment discusses the two supervisors that have been indicted and are now awaiting trail. Sawyer fails to mention, however, that the only two members of management facing charges are both Hispanic. They are both legal residents, however, both initially entered this country illegally. Actually, it was partly because of the way they entered the country that a judge saw fit to remand them until trial.

The information about the women being held in limbo as they wait for further government action is important. When the women were originally detained and then subsequently released, federal authorities were quick to point out how "humane" they were being by allowing the women (and three men) to return to their homes and care for children. Because this was a change -- a lesson learned, if you will -- from the December 2006 Swift Co. raids in Marshalltown, I made a point of reporting the development.

If the process had gone as described -- the detainees, tagged and released, receiving letters with more information within a few weeks -- it would definitely be one of the points that ICE and the Department of Justice could use as testament of their want to uphold the law, but not at the expense of treating people unfairly or inhumanely. Yet, that's not what has happened.

The detainees in Postville are now living in a state of flux. They can't leave the area. They can't work. Although they were sent home to provide for children, the immigrants are now having a difficult time doing so.

The piece, although lacking, tells an important story. I hope CBS realizes the story they provided tonight is one of many that could be told about Postville, Agriprocessors and the May 12 immigration raid. More importantly, I hope they don't stop at just the one.