Iowa Governor Chet Culver criticised Agriprocessors in a guest editorial on August 24, 2008, comparing it to Upton Sinclair′s 1906 novel The Jungle: "Alarming information about working conditions at the Postville plant ... brought to national attention by the raid forces me to believe that, in contrast to our state's overall economic-development strategy, this company's owners have deliberately chosen to take the low road in its business practices." One day later, then presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke out against Agriprocessors' managers, without mentioning Agriprocessors by name, while campaigning in Iowa. During Obama's first year as president, raids on workplaces declined, but deportations of illegal immigrants increased by nearly 10 percent from the last year of the Bush presidency.
