May 31, 2019
After our long venture from Radcliffe to Storm Lake, we met with Mark Prosser, the city’s Public Safety Director and Chief of Police, to discuss immigration. Mark was born and raised in East St. Louis where he worked on its police force before coming to Storm Lake in October of 1989. He expected to go back to policing in a metro area but ended up staying in Storm Lake for 30 years. In addition to his police career, he has taught college classes for 19 years and also went back to school to study theology to become an ordained deacon in the Catholic church. He briefly discussed how his parents were missionaries in Guatemala.
The discussion covered various topics including languages, the challenge of representation for immigrants, an organization known as Salud, gang issues, congressional immigration issues, and a 1990 raid on a meatpacking plant that Prosser himself helped orchestrate. The meatpacking industry’s reliance on immigrant labor has increased Storm Lake’s ethnic diversity. Between 24 and 48 languages are spoken among children and 30+ languages are spoken among adults. Police officers often face language barriers when making contact with community residents. Prosser also talked about an organization that advocates for immigrants known as Salud, which means health in Spanish. Salud focuses on the underrepresented by providing community support programs and through hosting events. It was interesting to hear that the immigrants in Storm Lake are advocating for themselves as opposed to just falling into the background, which often occurs for minority populations. Prosser also mentioned gang issues in relation to how people coming into Storm Lake were associated with gangs from their previous place of residence. They think being part of a gang is their only safety net, when in reality, it’s not necessary in Storm Lake. The police have to address these issues quickly to reduce gang violence or gang-related crimes. Toward the end of the discussion Prosser added that Congress has always been wishy-washy about immigration issues, such as DACA or temporary protective status (TPS). This creates fear in undocumented immigrants, since they don’t what is going to happen next, but it also shows that Congress needs to address these issues. Prosser then brought up how he orchestrated a raid in the 1990s in Storm Lake. Looking back on it, he swore he would never do anything like that again since he saw first-hand how it tore families and communities apart, as well as how it doesn’t actually get to the root of solving any immigration problems. This was an interesting story to hear since we learned about a similar raid situation in Postville, Iowa and read so much about the immigration issues in the book, Storm Lake.
To wrap up the day, we meet with Councilor Jose Ibarra of the Storm Lake City Council. Ibarra’s family came to Storm Lake in 1999 when he was 12. His main reason for running for City Council was due to the lack of diversity on the council; he wanted immigrants to feel that they don’t have to be rich or white to be heard, but rather that you should be involved and active in the community to try to make your concerns a priority. In addition to this, Ibarra also discussed how Storm Lake is an example of what America will probably look like in 25 years: with people of all different ethnic and religious backgrounds living together. He also mentioned that biggest problem while he has been on the City Council has been the image of Storm Lake, due to it being seen as an immigrant town. Whenever an immigrant commits a crime, it gets blown out of proportion, whereas if someone who isn’t an immigrant commits a crime, they get minimal attention.
Today was an interesting day since we were able to hear two different perspectives on immigration – one from law enforcement, and one from an immigrant’s perspective. The discussions highlighted the social concerns that communities face related to immigration.