BREAKING: Federal immigration raids hitting Omaha
Customers are perplexed to find a South Omaha store along the main South 24th Street business district closed at mid-morning Tuesday. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)
OMAHA — Multiple immigration enforcement operations unfolding throughout Omaha on Tuesday have all local elected Latino leaders out visiting various work sites, some South Omaha businesses shutting their doors for the time being and area residents checking in with each other in a frenzy.
Latino leaders tracking the situation, posting about it on social media and speaking with workers said they had heard of up to a half-dozen worksites where federal immigration agents had visited.
A man trying to get some goods at a South 24th Street store said he worked at Omaha's Nebraska Beef plant, which he said let him and other employees go home at mid-morning.
Roger Garcia, chairman of the Douglas County board, announced during a county board meeting Tuesday that he had to leave because his community was 'being terrorized.'
'I have to depart,' he said. 'As we speak, there's word of at least two raids happening at this moment, so I have to go. I have to try and help.'
He was among leaders posting in English and Spanish on social media to keep the community informed. Among the potentially targeted businesses Tuesday were Glenn Valley Foods, LALA's and JBS, processing and production plants in the eastern part of the city. Garcia said a company spokesperson told him there was no raid at JBS.
State Sens. Dunixi Guereca and Margo Juarez of South Omaha gathered mid-morning with a half dozen other community representatives on South 24th Street. Guereca pointed at the quiet business corridor, the heart of Nebraska's largest Latino business district, and said: 'This is fear.'
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had no immediate comment on the moves. Local law enforcement agencies said they were not participating in the federal raids, but that they are providing agents and the public with traffic enforcement around targeted locations, as needed.
Guereca said he was disappointed in the way federal agents carried out the operation, which he said created unnecessary fear for families, customers and merchants.
'Businesses closed their doors. Not only are folks not going to work, they're not consuming,' he said.
Yesenia Peck, who heads the Nebraska Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, also came to the 24th Street district to check on businesses. As she approached one store, a customer was attempting to open the door, but it was locked.
She said she knew of at least one foreign consulate office based in Omaha, the Guatemalan Consulate, that was sending a representative to an affected worksite.
'Everybody is scared right now. Businesses are closing,' she said. 'This is not life…'
Peck said one merchant asked her, 'How are we going to pay the bills? Pay rent?'
Martha Barrera, who owns a salon on 24th Street, said her workers have continued to accept customers, but she said people are in panic mode about what is happening outside the doors. She said she is happy that community leaders have offered information on rights and how to respond if federal agents were to come to her business or any others.
She and others on the business corridor said their stores rely on Latino families and are worried about future commerce.
Peck said she understands there are laws and people must abide by those.
'But this is not the way it should be done,' she said. 'Not cruelly.'
'What is happening right now is unbelievable. I've seen this kind of thing in other countries,' she said, including her homeland of Peru. 'It's just not the right way.'
Saul Lopez, of LULAC National, was headed with other community members to pass out information about worker rights at workplaces and said a concern was for parents who might be separated from children.
'We're very worried right now about what's going on with the families.'
A leader of an Omaha nonprofit that works with youths said Tuesday that the organization has been working to identify families whose working parent may have been detained and separated from their children. So far, the organization's leader said at least two kids in their care who are from two different families have a parent caught up in the operations. The organization was busy getting a hold of emergency contacts for the kids.
Also Tuesday, immigration advocates and community leaders had turned a South Omaha organization into a sort of information headquarters to better understand and coordinate legal, outreach and response activities.
This is a developing story. It was last updated at 2:25 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10.
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