An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid targeting the Glenn Valley Foods meat processing plant in Omaha, Nebraska, resulted in nearly 70% of the company’s workforce disappearing within weeks. Dozens of workers, primarily from Mexico and Central America, were arrested and are likely to be deported. The incident dealt a severe blow to the company’s operations, which had been experiencing strong growth for over a decade.
Chad Hartmann, president of Glenn Valley Foods, stated that production has severely declined, forcing the company to face difficulties in finding replacement labor. Gary Rohwer, the company’s owner, described the situation as “starting from scratch,” emphasizing the heavy impact of the raid, which was part of the Trump administration’s increased enforcement efforts targeting undocumented immigrant labor.
Rohwer, a Republican who voted for a Democrat for the first time in 2024 due to President Trump’s treatment of immigrants, expressed his dismay that the government accused employees he knew as “wonderful people, who sweated and bled to build this company” of wrongdoing.
Many of the arrested workers had no prior criminal records, apart from a few traffic violations. They were working mothers, and now their children, who are U.S. citizens, are struggling at home. The company has tried to hire new workers, but the local labor market is scarce, and most new applicants are also Hispanic immigrants. This raises questions about the role of immigrant labor in the U.S. economy, as many strenuous manual labor jobs are considered unattractive to American workers.
The company is experiencing difficulties in verifying the legal status of new workers. The government’s E-Verify system, designed to check employment eligibility, sometimes struggles to detect document fraud. Alfredo Moreno, a new human resources employee with extensive experience in recruiting labor for meat processing plants, suggests more thorough screening measures, including direct interviews and document checks using ultraviolet lights and magnifying glasses.
The story of Elizabeth Rodriguez, a worker who was arrested, highlights the profound impact of the raid on families. Her son, Omar, is working to raise bail money for his mother and hopes she will be released on bond while awaiting a court decision. This incident reflects the challenges and pain that immigrant families face amid increasingly stringent immigration policies.
According to The New York Times, the incident at Glenn Valley Foods is a prime example of the ripple effects of labor raids on businesses and communities, disrupting supply chains, increasing prices, and causing deep human suffering.
