http://www.nebraska.tv/news/local/4909891.html

In little over a month, Marana Garcia will give birth to her first child. But her boyfriend may not be there, after a raid at the Swift packing plant.

"The truth is I think is was not fair," Garcia said through an interpreter.

Garcia enlisted an attorney in her search for her boyfriend Ricardo.

"I want to see if we can get information on where he's at, where they have him," she said.

Attorneys say federal agents will likely tell detained workers they don't have many choices.

"'We'll take you back right now if you sign the paper, or else we'll charge you with a crime.' I'm afraid people will be taken out that can't file something," attorney Derek Mitchell said.


Options are limited. Those with families could fight in court to avoid being deported. For now, lawyers say they just want to talk to detainees.

Mitchell said, "There's an 800 number we've tried to get through but it's full."

The government says these workers weren't just here illegally, they allegedly stole the identity of American citizens. That could make this more than an immigration issue, but a criminal matter.

"I think it was framed that way for a reason -- identify theft. But under Nebraska law what that is is criminal impersonation. If you earn more than $1500 using a false identity it's a class three felony," Michell said.


Marana knows her boyfriend may not get papers to work again. She says Ricardo's not a criminal, and deserves to a phone call.

"To at least let them call their families and let them know they're OK and where they're at," she said.

Families of detained workers say they're victims in this, that their families are being ripped apart at Christmas.

Government agents, however, say they knew they had false IDs, and say the victims are those whose IDs were stolen.

Reporter's Notes by Steve White:
Milo Mumgaard, from Nebraska Appleseed said the government is trying to look tough by connecting immigration to identity theft. He said that "paints over the fact its enforcing a broken system." His group supports rights for immigrants. He said this effort to play up the identity theft angle, as he called it, doesn't deal with the demand for labor at packing plants.

Union officials tell NTV detained workers were taken to Iowa to be processed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the agency that was once part of the INS, the Immigration and Naturalization Service.