The National Family Unity Campaign, Rep. Luis Guitierrez’ effort to shine a light on inhumane workplace raids and push for comprehensive immigration reform, swings back through Chicago today. Buoyed by President Obama's promise this week that he'll soon introduce a new strategy for comprehensive immigration reform, Gutierrez and Cardinal Francis George will publicly urge the White House to end raids across the country:

Cardinal George and other religious leaders have sought to cast the issue in moral terms, pointing out the devastation raids have had on families and communities while noting that a culture of hate has festered in the absence of better border enforcement.

George rightfully points out the insecurity and trauma raids levy on immigrant families.  But it's important to remember that supplanting workers destroys local economies as well. Marcelo Ballvé’s new piece in Mother Jones explores in great detail how Postville, IA -- once a thriving, multicultural, Midwestern town -- struggled to regroup from the massive raid that claimed one-fifth of the town’s population last May. To say it’s been a shaky year puts it lightly:

Then ICE came, and everything changed. When I arrived in Postville a few weeks after the raid, local businesses were already hurting, particularly those catering to the immigrants. El Vaquero, six years in operation, was on the edge; three months later, it was boarded up. The Guatemalan restaurant remained open, but was mostly empty, even at lunchtime; to make ends meet, its owner had a side business shuttling panicked immigrants to Chicago, where they could catch direct flights to Guatemala City.

At a clothing store called Lily’s, owner Tomás Hernández watched Spanish-language television to stave off boredom as he waited for customers who were few and far between. When business was good, Hernández said, he was doing $1,000 a week, but sales were down at least 85 percent since the raid. “I’m going to see what happens, but if there’s no change in three or four months, I’ll have no choice but to close,” he told me.

Be sure to read the entire piece.

UPDATE (4:25 pm): Here's the Tribune article on the event.