DES MOINES - Panelists at an immigration forum Thursday urged the federal government to stop carrying out raids like the one that detained nearly 400 workers at a Postville meatpacking plant.

Some on the panel said such raids only disrupt the communities in which they're conducted.

"By raiding our employers that we feel might be hiring many undocumented workers, we're causing such a trauma to so many communities, and we're making no impact whatsoever to the real problem," said state Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, an Ames Democrat and a panelist.

Wessel-Kroeschell called on Congress to enact legislation that allows illegal immigrants currently in the country a path to citizenship.

She said state action alone won't tackle the problem unless the federal government acts as well.

State governments can't police U.S. borders, and separate immigration policies from each state could lead to conflicting laws, said panelist Alicia Claypool of the Iowa Immigration Education Coalition, an immigration reform group.

Claypool said raids like the one in Postville clog the judicial system, which must handle each worker's case.

Federal agents detained 389 employees at Postville's Agriprocessors Inc., the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the country, on May 12.

It was the largest single-site workplace immigration raid in U.S. history.

The five-member panel discussed a range of topics related to immigration at the Des Moines Area Community College's urban campus.

The forum was sponsored by Iowapolitics.com and Mediacom and attended by around 50 people.

Paula Martinez, of Carlisle, who attended the forum, said she's concerned about the impact raids have on immigrant families.

Martinez, who is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, said she's worried that raids split up families and punish the children of illegal immigrants, who are often brought into the country at a young age.

"If I tell my son that we're moving to Rock Island, Illinois, because dad has a job there, he doesn't have a choice to say, 'No, mom, I'm not going,'" Martinez said.

Panelist David Roederer, executive director of the Iowa Chamber Alliance, predicted the raids will continue or increase until Congress enacts meaningful reform.

Roederer called the U.S. immigration system "broken" and chided lawmakers for failing to address the problem.

Fred Love can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or fred.love@lee.net