Fear lingers a year after Swift raids



By Robert Price Immigration agents detained more than 250 employees one year ago at the Swift and Company plant in Grand Island. The impact of the ICE raid was far–reaching, from the economy to the schools.

But a year later, perhaps nowhere has the impact been greater than in the local Hispanic community.

A year has gone by and the dust has settled, but it appears many in Grand Island's Hispanic community remain fearful. They are fearful of another raid - of being deported.

Legal or illegal, many continue to keep a low profile, to stay home.

A year ago a caravan of ICE agents arrived at Swift and arrested 250 workers. Panic and fear soon spread throughout the Hispanic community.
For many, the fear has not gone away.

"People are scared, you still see that. They do not want to go out, they do not want to shop because I think in their minds they are just counting the days until they will be deported," said Oscar Erives, Buenos Dias Nebraska.

Marie Anchondo runs the store La Chiquita. She has seen her business go down noticeably since last year's raid.

"After that happened, we do not sell anything, we do not make very much money, because the people are scared to spend money, people scared to go out," Anchondo said.

Shortly after the raid, Marie went from 50 to 60 customers a day to less than 10 a day.

"People do not trust. When somebody hears something, everybody stays home, they do not wanna go nowhere," said Anchondo.

She says many illegal immigrants have left Grand Island for fear of deportation. And as word of the raid spreads, fewer seem to be moving in.

"If they ask you how are things over there, well, ICE just did a raid, so that is probably going to stop them from coming here - gonna slow it down," said Erives.

Marie says as time goes by, the mood of the community slowly improves, but others think it will never return to normal.

"I think it is better than it was, but I think we still have it in the back of our minds that it could happen anytime," said Erives.

Nearly 1300 Swift employees were detained at 6 plants across the country.
Of those, about half have been deported.

As for what happened to the other half their cases were sent to courts across the country, and the outcomes still are not entirely clear.
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