An immigration raid last Monday in Postville has brought new attention to the debate over U.S. immigration policy. Iowans have criticized U.S. policy and ICE for some very different reasons, but an ICE spokesman says the agency is just doing its job.

The raid, in which 390 people were arrested, was led by Immigrations Customs and Enforcement and took place at a kosher meatpacking plant in northeastern Iowa owned by Agriprocessors, Inc.

“What we need to do is go after the CEOs. They’re the ones who are creating these problems. The CEOs and the business owners, they’re the ones who need to be prosecuted,” said Craig Halverson, Iowa director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

Halverson said these businesses are exploiting the workers, quite similar to “slave labor,” but one of the major problems is that politicians are more concerned about getting money from businesses – not making CEOs accountable.

Loreto Prieto, director of U.S. Latino/a studies, said the country’s dependency on Latin American countries impacts the labor force in a big way.

“The U.S. and Iowa both need to realize how dependent they are on the labor force that comes from the Latin American countries,” Loreto said. “It’s like talking out of both sides of your mouth because if you actually did reckon what was going on you’d realize the hypocrisy.”

Prieto said the raids are creating fear and hate and instead we should be acknowledging that many of these businesses couldn’t survive if the state and country didn’t have these workers.

“It’s about time we created a viable work visa program because the immigrants now have very few options,” he said.

Halverson said the real root of this problem is not being addressed.

“We’re basically trying to wake up America to what the real problem is. It’s not the illegal aliens, it’s the people who are aiding and abetting them to come here,” Halverson said.

However, Tim Counts, Midwest ICE spokesman, said ICE is just doing their job, which is to enforce the nation’s immigration laws.

“The law states that for anyone who has been determined to be in the country illegally, the consequence is removal from the country and that’s federal law,” Counts said. “That’s the will of the American people.”

The recent raids differ from previous raids because authorities are pressing criminal charges before holding any civil deportation proceedings. Ben Stone, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, said in the past these types of crimes typically haven’t been pursued because the point was to deport them, which is quicker and less expensive.

The ACLU has criticized the ICE’s decision to press criminal charges first because they believe the criminal charges could be used to bargain away immigrants’ right to a deportation proceeding and even if those who have a right to stay could be deported, Stone said.