Workers in shock as raid happens

As daylight broke Tuesday morning, the stacks at Swift & Co. were steaming heavily into the light-blue sky.

Workers had dutifully come in, donned their hard hats and started their jobs. It was commerce as usual.

"It was normal for everybody until roughly 7:30 or so," said Fernando Rodriquez, union director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local No. 7. "It was normal until that point."

At 7:30 a.m., roughly the time for the first scheduled break, members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement swarmed into the plant, rounding up everyone into the cafeteria, workers said. Then the ICE officers divided the workers into who they believed were legal citizens and illegal immigrants.

"The ones who didn't have papers were really upset, sad. A lot of women were crying," said Jose Garza, who was born in California. "Things are getting tough."

He said that federal officials surrounded the plant and employees were not allowed to go to the bathroom or use their cell phones.

"I didn't see (the agents) handcuffing or abusing anybody. They were only taking them to the buses."

In the end, six large buses and several smaller vans removed workers from the facility as family members watched from behind a fence.

Melicia Ugarte-Tapia, who cleans offices at the plant, went inside to bring documents for a relative. But then she could not be released until another relative brought in her documents.

"They aren't even going to give them a chance to go home and tell their families," she said of the workers who were taken away.

Rodriquez said that employees had no idea what was about to happen. In fact, he was scheduled for a meeting in Denver on Tuesday morning. At 7:20 a.m. he got the call that there was an emergency. He said that members of the union were not allowed to be with workers as they were questioned by federal officials.

"Workers are real upset," he said. "All of a sudden, and poof, it changed their livelihoods."

Esteban Palma of Greeley perhaps had chosen the worst possible day to apply for a job at Swift's lamb plant. He was turned away immediately when he showed up to apply. A self-admitted illegal immigrant, he said the workers who were rounded up Tuesday were not a threat. If it had happened to him, he would be back, he said.

"If they get me and take me back to Mexico, I'll come back tomorrow," he said.

Outside the plant, hundreds of family members waited anxiously for news. A few people, however, were hoping for a future job. Francisco Contreras was born in Mexico but is a now a legal resident and has lived in Greeley almost 30 years.

"ICE is doing the right thing by coming here," he said. "Because I've been four years struggling to get a job here, and they didn't hire me. They hire the ones that have phony papers."

The workers at the plant were in shock Tuesday, Rodriquez said. He worries about the families that had a mother and father working Tuesday morning.

"It's just unbelievable how people have been working here a long time. Forever," he said. "Then in a matter of hours it turns peoples' lives upside down."

-- Tribune reporters Vanessa Delgado, Joanna Larez and Mailyn Salabarria contributed to this report.