Three months after ICE raid, families continue to struggle

Three months after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley, many families of those arrested continue to piece their lives back together.

It has been easier for some than others.

"A traumatic event like that is a shaking of their environment," said Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, an assistant professor at Arizona State University's school of social work in Tempe, Ariz. "Anything that happens in front of us or to us can make us lose our sense of safety and stability."

Roe-Sepowitz specializes in working with families who have experienced a traumatic event. The most important thing for families at this point is developing family and community support networks, she said.

"It is such a political situation and is politically motivated," she said. "Everyone is blaming outward, but the families are going to be most affected."

About 260 people were taken during the raid, many of whom were deported to their native countries the next day or in the weeks that followed. The raid was part of a national crackdown by the Department of Homeland Security that began in February 2006.

In some cases, neither families nor children will feel stable until they are reunited with the person who was lost, she said.

"Research shows the power of an incarcerated parent on a child," Roe-Sepowitz said.

The lack of that parent's role in the home is very stressful and can have a lot of impact on a child, she said.

"The important thing is not to forget or pretend that it never happened," Roe-Sepowitz. "That is kind of our obligation as a community to serve as a support system when a traumatic event happens."

The Arenas/Vicente-Chume family

At 8:15 a.m. on Dec. 12, Rocenda Arenas received a call from her fiancé, Leonel Vicente-Chume, who was using a pay phone in the plant to tell her goodbye.

"I was worried how my little one was going to suffer without his dad," Arenas said, recalling that day. "We thought about it at times, but we never thought that (ICE agents) would hit."

The couple met four years ago and have a 6-month-old son. They were planning to get married in January and had begun the naturalization paperwork for legal residency last October, she said.

After the raid, Vicente-Chume was taken to the ICE detention center in Aurora. Arenas said he refused to sign voluntary deportation papers and was released on a $7,000 bond on Dec. 28.

Since then, the couple has been working with a lawyer to find a way for him to stay here permanently. A Weld County judge extended Vicente-Chume's hearing to August, when he will be able to present his case.

"Right now, we are planning on making a life and doing it on our own," Arenas said. "I love having him here."

The couple said wedding plans have not changed. The two plan to make the marriage official before the end of March. They are also waiting to hear if Vicente-Chume is eligible to work while he awaits his hearing.

"Hopefully, he'll stay here to be part of his son's life," said Leasa Arguijo, Arenas' mother, with whom the couple is staying until they know for sure what will happen with Vicente-Chume's residency. "They don't think it affects the children, but it does."

Arenas said she is not sure what will happen if her fiancé cannot stay. Since he returned, she said it's been very hard for their family financially to pay their bills. She is hoping her fiancé can resolve the issue with the court so he can return to work soon.

"I am just trying to think positive right now," Arenas said.

Vicente-Chume began working for the company in 2002 on the kill floor. Arenas said she applied there this week and is waiting to hear if she will be hired.

Zarate Family

More than a month after getting her husband back, Sara Zarate tries not to think about how long it will last before she may have to say goodbye again.

The day after Candido Zarate was taken, ICE agents sent him off with several other detainees to El Paso, Texas, where he remained until Feb. 2. He was released on a $5,000 bond and took a bus back to Greeley. He began working for the company three years before the raid and brought in close to $1,700 a month.

"It was really hard when he was gone and the kids started asking for him," Sara Zarate said. "They stopped eating and were crying all the time."

She said that judges have yet to set a hearing date. She and her husband are just waiting for that date to be set and enjoying the time they have together with their four daughters and son.

Even though the couple was married before the raid, she said they never filed the proper paperwork for him to be here legally.

"We're waiting to see what's going to happen," Sara Zarate said. "We don't know what to expect; a lawyer told us it was going to be hard."

If her husband is told he must return to Guatemala, she is not sure if she and the girls will be able to go, too. She said the girls and her son have become so accustomed to living here. She is not sure how well they would adjust in another country.

"I'm sacred of what's going to happen next, and I think about it every day," Sara Zarate said. "We are just trying to relax and let things go the way they are supposed (to), and are leaving it to God."