Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

Arts & Culture

America First: Legacy Of An Immigration Raid

Jorge and Maribel's family are featured in the film, "America First: Legacy Of An Immigration Raid."
Courtesy of NETA
Jorge and Maribel's family are featured in the film, "America First: Legacy Of An Immigration Raid."

Airs Monday, April 15, 2019 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV

It’s been more than a decade since Postville, a small town in Iowa, suffered the largest immigration raid at a workplace in U.S. history: 389 immigrants were arrested in the biggest kosher meat packing plant in the country.

"America First" explores the aftermath of the raid on the Postville community through the eyes of three young people who call Postville home:

  • Jeidy, a 10-year-old Guatemalan girl whose parents were deported after the raid.
  • Ludvin, a 21-year-old originally from Guatemala who, as a boy, remained in Postville after all of his friends were forced to leave.
  • Kani, a young 18-year-old Somali man who arrived to Postville a few years ago with his father, who was offered a job at the kosher meat packing plant.

As Donald Trump revives some aspects of George W. Bush’s immigration enforcement policies, the Postville experience sheds light on the impact, efficiency and repercussions of massive workplace raids.

Advertisement
America First: Legacy of An Immigration Raid

Credits:

Produced by Univision Interactive Media, Inc. Presented by Iowa Public Television. Direction and production: Almudena Toral and Andrea Patiño Contreras. Executive production: Selymar Colón. Data research: Ronny Rojas. Associate Postproduction: Mauricio Rodríguez Pons y Gerardo Del Valle. Illustration and Animation: Mauricio Rodríguez Pons and Bryce Fayaz. Editing: Andrea Patiño Contreras, Almudena Toral, Gerardo del Valle, Mauricio Rodríguez Pons and Anna Clare Spelman. Sound Design: Erik Aldrey. Translation: David Adams, Carlos Sánchez, Roy Revivo, Sadia Kullane and Abdiwahab Ali. Special Projects Director: José López.