Update: New Developments in Koch Foods Raid
Last Update: 7:09 pm

Update: Immigration Raid At Fairfield Plant
Immigrants Seized In Raid To Receive Humanitarian Release
Large Immigration Investigation At Fairfield Business
Koch Foods Releases Statement On Immigration Investigation
I-Team Investigates Koch Foods

Reported by: Deb Silverman
Photographed by: 9News


The immigration raid at a local chicken processing plant on Tuesday is bringing out all sorts of emotions.

One-hundred of the suspected illegal workers remain in jails around the Tri-state.

Everyone else was released with the promise to show up for a court hearing.

Those who are free say they are scared.

Among the people picked up during the raid at Koch foods on Port Union Road in Fairfield, a 28-year-old mother.

She was released because she's the only one who can care for her three-year-old son.

She doesn't want us to show her face or share her name.

An interpreter tells 9News what she's saying.

"Today, I continue feeling sad, even though I am released. I want to continue being here working. I feel very sad, I'm not a criminal," the translator communicated.

She says when the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents came into her workplace yesterday, she cried because getting caught would mean deportation back to Guatemala.

"I am going to work for God's will. I am just fighting for a better life for my family, that's why I'm here working and I'm going to wait for God's will," she continued.

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones says the 20 suspects being held in his jail are not only facing federal charges for being here illegally, but they're also facing state charges for identity theft or having fake documentation.

"We've been telling you and other elected officials, we are in a problem here," said Sheriff Jones, "not only in this community, but the entire country is dealing with people coming here, stealing IDs, stealing identities."

"They are basically robbing the community," said Jones.

People from eight different countries were arrested during the raid.

A group of church leaders and human rights advocates gathered on Wednesday to say our nation's immigration system is broken and nothing good comes out of raids like the one at Koch Foods yesterday.

"This strategy will only drive undocumented workers deeper into the underground economy and into the hands of human traffickers and unscrupulous employers," said James Daria, of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC).


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