Latino community still in disarray
Two years later some undocumented workers have returned to the US, but live in fear
Jennifer W. Sanchez
The Salt Lake Tribune
12/04/2008
Ignacio and his family have never recovered since federal agents arrested his wife two years ago during an immigration raid on a northern Utah meat-packing company.
She was deported to Mexico, but slipped back over the border and returned to Ignacio and their two sons. Later, she gave birth to their baby girl.
Since the raid, Ignacio has been laid off and re-hired several times from a job that pays $8 an hour. The bank came for the family's 1999 Chevrolet Blazer in July; he still owes the mechanic for repairs. And the rent is five months late.
The children wear hand-me-downs. Ignacio can't even buy a new dress for his only daughter.
"I'm embarrassed. We feel like beggars," he said in his living room, decorated with a Mexico soccer team jersey and a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe. "We never had to ask for help before."
The raid on the then-Swift & Co. meat-packing plant in Hyrum was part of a federal roundup of about 1,300 undocumented workers at the company's operations in six states.
Early on Dec. 12, 2006 -- also the Day of Our Lady Guadalupe, considered a holy day by many Latinos -- immigration agents poured into the 1,100-employee plant in rural Hyrum. They arrested 154 undocumented Latino workers and charged all but seven with violating federal and state identity-fraud and immigration statutes.
It was never disclosed how many of those arrested were deported, and it cannot be known how many returned to the U.S
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11139134
