But is it Kosher?

I wrote the cover story in this quarter's Religion in the News about how the media treated the Postville, Iowa kosher slaughterhouse immigration raid and the ensuing scandal. The article came out tonight on the web, with hard copies due out later this week. Here is how it begins...

"On May 12, 2008, a large contingent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents descended upon the northeastern Iowa town of Postville, home of the kosher meat processing facility Agriprocessors Inc., armed with 697 criminal complaints and arrest warrants involving illegal workers, identity theft, and the fraudulent use of social security numbers. Using helicopters, a makeshift processing center on a converted county fairground, and dozens of buses, the federal ICE agents, directed by the regional office in Bloomington, Minnesota, carried out two federal search warrants on the Agriprocessors site and arrested almost 400 workers..." Read more