- Video shows the raid at Glenn Valley foods and the emotional confrontation between the crowd and immigration officials.
- Federal immigration officials raided the Glenn Valley Foods plant on Tuesday, detaining dozens of workers and leaving family members wondering what will happen to their loved ones.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
At the Glenn Valley Food Plant near 68th and J street neighbors and family anxiously watched as dozens of workers were pulled out of the plant with their hands zip tied Tuesday morning.
“I saw people coming out running because ICE is in town,” said Rosa Lopez, an employee at Glenn Valley Foods.
“We have been knowing for a while that things are going to get ugly. We didn’t know what ugly would mean,” said Linda Jensen, the founder of Like Minded Friends Omaha, a group dedicated to preserving Democracy.
As word of the raid spread the crowd began to grow.
Kevin Garrido, whose cousin worked at the plant and has a visa, watched anxiously.
“I was on Facebook and I saw someone’s stream from here, pointed towards that way. You can see all those vans and an immigration bus over there. I saw its my cousins job so I came to check out the situation,” said Garrido.
Garrido told me that despite reaching out as soon as he heard about the raid, he hadn’t heard from his cousin.
Emotions ran high as the bus carrying those detained workers left the scene with around a dozen vehicles following.
Almost all of the vehicles were unmarked carrying masked federal agents.
Several onlookers told me, while it was federal officials conducting the raid, the presence of OPD and Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies was deeply unsettling.
“I know there is a lot and more is going to come because of this,” said Lopez.
“People are already in hiding. I was driving down 24th street there was not as many people. A lot of restaurants are closed the businesses are closed. I am seeing people’s trust already shook from the law enforcement people already,” said Garrido.
As the bus left Garrido told me he still had not heard from his cousin.
