POSTVILLE, Iowa - Nearly three months after a federal immigration raid uprooted almost 400 employees at a meatpacking plant in northeastern Iowa, dozens of Somali immigrants are slowly but steadily filling the depleted ranks left by the arrested workers.
Along Postville's main street, in a storefront that used to hold a mattress store, a dozen Somali men ate dinner and chatted on a recent evening. Some members of the Somali community are renting the room and hope to turn it into a restaurant, said Sadiq Abdi.
"They want a place where we can eat Somali food and just to be," he said.
Federal officials have said the May 12 raid at Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, was the largest single immigration enforcement effort in U.S. history.
As they fill the jobs vacated by the 389 people - mostly Mexicans and Guatemalans - who were arrested during the raid, the Somalis are now beginning to form their own community within this town of 2,200.
By their own estimates, there about 100 to 150 Somalis in town. Meanwhile, the Somali presence - including some women and other family members _ has been more noticeable in recent weeks, as new workers have settled into town.
Abdi arrived recently from Minneapolis, and he's thinking about applying at the plant, he said. At the former mattress store, he stood next to Ahmed Ahmed, a Somali man who said he worked his first night shift at the plant several weeks ago. Both say they are in the U.S. legally.
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