Hundreds protest immigration raid in small-town America

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

POSTVILLE, Iowa, (AFP) — Led by 43 women with electronic tracking bracelets on their ankles, hundreds of people from around the country marched down main street here Sunday to protest the biggest immigration raid in US history at a kosher meat plant that has split this tiny Iowa town asunder.

Released from jail so they can take care of their families, the 43 women out front were among 390 mainly Guatemalan and Mexican workers arrested by federal agents May 12 at the Agriprocessors meat factory and charged with identity theft.

It was the biggest raid on a workplace in US history, as part of the government's crackdown on illegal immigration, a hot-button issue nationally three months ahead of the US presidential election.

The demonstrators marched through...