This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
HYRUM - When they left for school Tuesday, they had a mom at home. Now, they don't.
The three Paulino girls are waiting for a call from their mom, who was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents when she was working at a meat-cutting plant here. Seven-year-old Kathya can't sleep without her. Eleven-year-old Jacqueline is wearing Mom's brown Old Navy sweatshirt until she comes home. And 9-year-old Brenda is keeping Mom's rosary close to her heart.
"Nothing has ever made us feel this sad," Jacqueline said, her eyes puffy from crying.
The girls were among the 300 people - husbands, wives, sisters, brothers and children - who attended a meeting Wednesday at Iglesia de Dios Ebenezer in hope of getting answers from community leaders about the whereabouts of their loved ones who were picked up in the ICE raid at the Swift & Co. meat-processing plant Tuesday.
Many people, mostly Latinos who speak little English, said they have no idea what to do or where to go or where they can find their relatives. They're scared to go to work, send their kids to school or answer their front doors, in fear that immigration agents might take them, too. Some have received phone calls from their family members in U.S. immigration custody.
Alejandra Ayala is upset because she is trying to navigate the immigration web to get her husband of three years home. She's a U.S. citizen and her husband's residency papers are in process. Ayala can't pay rent and support their 22-month-old daughter on her $8-an-hour job. So she is planning to sell her car and furniture and move in with her parents in order to pay for help.
"I will do whatever I need to do to get a good lawyer," Ayala, 24, said.
Ayala's husband was one of those arrested in a federal sting dubbed "Operation Wagon Train" that hit six Swift & Co. plants throughout the nation. Of 145 people arrested in Utah, 31 were arrested on criminal charges and 114 were arrested for immigration violations.
Those with immigration violations will remain detained until they go in front of an immigration judge, who will then determine whether they will be deported. No children in Utah had both parents detained, said Nina Pruneda, an ICE spokeswoman.
In Washington on Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told reporters that the raids on Swift meat plants were part of a 10-month investigation that turned up identity theft and forgery rings across the country.
Chertoff said there was "massive use of document fraud" and identity theft of U.S. citizens to support hundreds of undocumented immigrants in obtaining jobs from the meat-processing plants.
"These were not victimless crimes," Chertoff said, citing instances of people using false documents to obtain credit cards, cell phones and even school loans.
Cache County Attorney George Daines said he had filed charges in Logan's 1st District Court against 58 people - all with the same three counts of forgery and one count of identity theft. The charges are all third-degree felonies. He said 27 or so of those people have not yet been captured because they may have received advanced warning of the raid.
Daines, who was at the news conference in Washington, D.C., to promote the local/federal cooperation on the case, said he anticipates convictions for all those arrested, a 60- to 90-day jail sentence and deportation.
Daines also said his county has 2 percent unemployment and companies are struggling to find workers. Employers don't have all the tools they need to ensure they're complying with immigration laws, he added.
As for the company, Chertoff and Daines said there were no charges filed against officials of Swift & Co., but investigations were continuing.
In addition to the Hyrum plant, federal agents raided Swift operations in Cactus, Texas; Grand Island, Neb.; Marshalltown, Iowa; Worthington, Minn.; and at the company headquarters in Greeley, Colo.
Around this tiny town in Northern Utah on Wednesday, folks were talking about the raids and hoping ICE had left town. They said they understand identity theft is a problem, but undocumented workers wouldn't need to do it if they could get work permits easier. It's not like many of these workers are wanted, dangerous criminals, they said.
"Does anyone have ties to Al-Qaida? Are they threats?" asked Doug, who declined to use his last name.
Doug, who hires Spanish-language employees, said he hopes ICE doesn't come to give him "grief" because he depends on his workers.
"I can hire non-Latinos but there's a whole lot of more headaches," he said, adding that his non-Latino workers are often not as reliable.
Evaristo Rios, who owns Varos Tacos, blames his 30 percent decline in sales on the raid. Rios said he doesn't understand why the federal government is targeting undocumented immigrants who are working. There are plenty of U.S. citizens who are taking advantage of the government welfare system and some of them don't even work, he said.
Regardless, Rios, Doug and others said federal agents should have waited on the raids.
"It could have been done after Christmas," said college student and farmer A.J. Robinson. "These people have been here . . . They weren't going anywhere."
After Wednesday night's meeting, the Paulino girls didn't feel any better. But they'll keep praying that God takes care of their mom and brings her home before Christmas. The family already put the Christmas tree up together. And they miss mom's enchiladas. Dad's trying and brought pizza for dinner, they said.
" I always think: My mom is going to come home and make us food, but she [hasn't] come home," Jacqueline said.
By the numbers:
* Arrests in Hyrum:
145 total
114 for immigration violations
31 on criminal charges
* Arrests in all six states:
1,282 total