Iowa's Radio News Network
Rod Roberts talks after the IBNA debate.
The three candidates vying for the Republican Party’s 2010 gubernatorial nomination say the State of Iowa and local authorities should crack down on people who have entered the country illegally.
In addition, the Republican candidates would not allow the children of illegal immigrants — whether the kids were born in the U.S. or not — to pay the cheaper, “in-state” tuition at the three state universities.
Crowd waits for President Obama's visit to Ottumwa.
Over 2,100 people gathered in a gymnasium in Ottumwa late this afternoon for a “town hall” meeting with President Obama.
Obama spent about an hour on stage in Ottumwa and he began by reminiscing about his 2008 Iowa Caucus victory.
”It is just good to be back in Iowa. If it weren’t for Iowa, I wouldn’t be president,” Obama said, as the crowd applauded and cheered. “I believe that.”
Obama touched on a variety of topics, from health care to trade policy to deficit reduction. He also criticized Republicans in the U.S. Senate for taking a procedural vote that blocks senate debate on a financial reform bill. ”It’s one thing to oppose reform, but to oppose just even talking about reform in front of the American people and having a legitimate debate — that’s not right,” Obama said.
The meat packing plant in Postville has begun beef production again and an executive with the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association predicts it could prove to be a $24 million turn-around for Iowa’s cattle industry.
There had been just one beef processing plant operating in Iowa — in Denison — but within the past two weeks the Agri Star plant in Postville has been buying about 90 head of cattle a day for its beef line. Agri Star C.E.O. Hershey Friedman has overseen a $7.4 million upgrade to the Postville plant.
An Iowa group is featured in a national report on how faith communities are playing a role in the immigration reform movement. The report by the Center for American Progress cites the Decorah Area Faith Coalition and its role in the Agriproccessors immigration raid in Postville.
Reverend Mike Blevins of the Calmar United Methodist Church says the raid brought people of all religions together to help. Blevins says the entire region was “traumatized” but he says one of the things to come out of the raid and how it was conducted is that the Decorah Area Faith Coalition and the Postville Faith Coalition combined to respond to those in need. Blevins says the raid and the work by the churches afterward shed new light on the plight of immigrants.
He says the “grassroots attitude” of people changed as human faces and stories made an “abstract polarized issue one of compelling human suffering, of injustice, of violation of basis biblical and national values.” “So we’ve seen a sea change here,” Blevins said. Blevins says the human side got legislators talking about the issue. He says the impact has gone beyond northeast Iowa.
Blevins says they have received support in Postville and Decorah from all over the world as St. Bridges in Postville had to raise $8,000 a month to support the one thousand people that were left “destitute” as a result of the raid. “The pain of the raid has become the promise of reform as the stories have become more visible,” Blevins says. Blevin says the faith coalitions plan to follow up on their prayer service in February with another in November that will continue to address the issue.
Blevins says they will continue to emphasize the “humanity of our neighbors and to overcome some of the hostility that we have seen in town hall meetings over the issue of healthcare.” So he says they will have a town hall potluck to talk celebrate their diversity. Belvins says Decorah has a heavy Norwegian population, one that celebrates that heritage. You can see more in the report ” Loving Thy Neighbor: Immigration Reform and Communities of Faith” on the Center for American Progress website.
O.KayHenderson.com