In December 2006, a mass ICE raid transformed the small Texas town of Cactus, leaving a significant portion of its immigrant workforce detained. Jack Herrera explores the immediate chaos of the raid and its long-term effects on the community, which has become one of the most diverse small towns in Texas.
In the locker room, where employees would normally go to change out of bloody clothes, workers wedged themselves into lockers and other hiding spots. Some removed ceiling tiles and climbed into the crawl space above. Back near the cutting tables, others reportedly hid inside beef carcasses. In the cafeteria, ICE agents lined up workers to take fingerprints.
Even as ICE agents combed the factory, Valdez assumed that after they left, he might be missing a handful of Guatemalan workers, who were the more recent immigrants. So he was stunned to see people he had known for fifteen years—long-term residents who owned their houses, who spoke English—being detained.