Immigration raids are human-made disasters – and Iowans know how to respond
This week marks one year since 32 immigrant workers were arrested and detained in an immigration enforcement raid on a precast concrete factory in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. The raid affected not only arrested workers, but also dozens more family members and children who were traumatically separated from a loved one and often left without a breadwinner.
The raid was one of several worksite raids in rural towns throughout the heartland in 2018, and part of a 400% increase in worksite immigration enforcement raids nationwide.
As public health researchers who have studied the impacts of immigration raids on community health, my colleague William Lopez and I are now speaking with people who have responded to immigration raids in towns throughout rural America –– in Tennessee, north Texas, Nebraska and Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Time and again, local residents liken these raids to natural disasters striking their towns. In the words of one Mt. Pleasant resident, the impact of the immigration raid was like “a tornado coming down and taking out 30 houses on the edge of town.”
I have my own personal history as an Iowan who experienced a disaster, when my childhood home filled with floodwater in the summer of 2008. I remember the many strangers who came to our neighborhood to shovel sand into sandbags and move our possessions as the Iowa River rose. After the flood subsided, a new wave of strangers were back, helping us to remove waterlogged furniture and drywall and comforting my mother and other neighbors in distress. I was 22, and a few months later I moved away from Iowa for work and school, but I was deeply moved by the ways Iowans had come together to care for my family during that time.
In Mt. Pleasant, a diverse and powerful group of residents have mobilized a similar response. Iowa WINS, a commission of the First Presbyterian Church, opened its doors to the community, connecting families to legal services, hosting a food bank, and raising funds to help families. Other supports arrived from civil rights and advocacy groups across the state, and some local residents now advocate for more just and humane immigration policies.
A less visible, but essential part of the response has been the support that immigrant families have provided to one another, where families have pooled money and child care, and helped one another find counselors and legal support. These disaster response efforts haven’t gone unnoticed: Iowa WINS recently received a disaster assistance award from the Iowa Disaster Human Resource Council.
Recently, a Mount Pleasant resident commented to me, “Tenemos muchos héroes en este pueblo," which means "We have many heroes in this town." Many Iowans, including immigrant families, know how to pull together and stand alongside their neighbor when the time calls for it.
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As we reflect on the year that has passed since disaster struck Mount Pleasant, let’s celebrate the many Iowans who have stepped up to respond – those born here and those who have chosen this state as their home. They exemplify a path to healthier, safer, stronger Iowa communities.
Nicole Novak is a public health researcher from Iowa City. She works at the University of Iowa College of Public Health.