On December 12, 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a raid in Swift & Co. facilities across the nation. This podcast has sought to tell that story and now it’s time to do something about it. Hosts Shelby and Angel Lopez, along with their guest Professor Yvette Romero Coronado, breakdown four major ways to get involved in your community. Including avenues to build community capacity for action, and to start conversations for healing and change. Follow Solo Éramos Niños to keep up with future stories about the Latine community, immigration, and first generation experiences.

Sources/Resources: Asset Mapping by UCLA Center For Health Policy ResearchRole of Sheriffs and the arrest-to-deportation pipeline by Immigrant Legal Resouces CenterImmigration in Utah by PBS NewsHour Extra Classroom Video CollectionWhat is Mutual Aid? (Classroom Version) by Dean Spade

In a small, rural town, from one day to the next, 145 people were taken away. How does a town come together in the wake of such sudden upheaval to support broken families and knit together communities, all while under continued threat? Through interviews with community members and leaders, including a professor of social work from Utah State University, this episode seeks to meet this question. Explore community solidarity, community tension, and the grassroots efforts and resources that have since been created to support those in the Valley.

Article by Matthew LaPlante: Swift Justice | Cover Story | Salt Lake City Weekly

Imagine: A father saying goodbye to his child, making a quick detour to drop his child off at school before going to turn himself into immigration agents. After that, this child is now expected to go and learn and ensure that his father's sacrifice was worth it. In part 2 of the impact of the Swift and Co. raids, we walk alongside Gloria, Francisco, and Jonathan as they retell their story of how the 2006 immigration enforcement shook their lives. Trauma within the Latine community often goes silenced due to fear and outright mistrust of those around them. Walk with us as we bring life to the challenges and hardships highlighted in part 1 through their difficult and heart wrenching stories.

How do you measure the impact of immigration enforcement and family separation? First, we must understand what it means to be impacted. In part one, hosts Shelby and Angel Lopez explore trauma, what it is and how it can shape the way people see themselves and the world around them. Trauma within the Latine and immigrant community carries even more nuance. To further understand these layers, the hosts discuss issues of trauma specific to migration, intergenerational and historical trauma, and culturally relevant healing principles for Latine people. Listen to stories of migration and subscribe to continue to explore the impact.

In episode two of Solo Éramos Niños, we center our story on the sleepy Cache Valley community, as it was shaken to its core on December 12th, 2006 when Immigration Customs Enforcement Agents arrested and deported 145 immigrants who had been working at the Swift & Co. Meat packaging facility in Hyrum, Utah.

Step into the shoes of the Children, Employees, Teachers, After School Program Directors who recall the events of that day and the impact it had on them, their friends, families, and the community.

Cover Art by Alexis Rausch

Music by Chillig (Chris Illig)

Logan, ¡Somos tus Vecinos! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCwo3hqzZdE

Welcome to Cache Valley - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoI8HWAUAPM

Greeley, Colorado, Worthington, Minnesota, Cactus, Texas. Marshalltown, Iowa, Grand Island, Nebraska, and Hyrum, Utah. What do each of these sleepy rural towns have in common? Each hosts a Swift & Co. meat packing plant, a small population of Latine people & undocumented immigrants, and each was a site that comprised the largest single day immigration enforcement in U.S. history. Hosts Shelby and Angel Lopez set the stage in exploring why Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeted the Swift & Co. meat packing company, how the raid was carried out, and what the fallout looked like on a national level. This is the story of the 2006 Swift & Co raids and the people that lived through it.

Written, Produced, and Edited by Angel Lopez and Shelby Lopez

Music by Chillig

Cover art by Alexis Rausch

Article sources for this episode:

https://cis.org/sites/cis.org/files/articles/2009/back309.pdf

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/12/raid-d14.html

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/lockdown-greeley/

https://www.carnegie.org/our-work/article/15-myths-about-immigration-debunked/

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=4829962&itype=NGPSID

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/us/13raid.html

https://www.deseret.com/2011/12/13/20237896/monday-vigil-remembers-2006-swift-raids-organizers-see-few-immigration-enforcement-changes

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2006/12/15/swiftprogram

https://nebraska.tv/news/local/impact-of-swift-raid-felt-ten-years-later-in-grand-island

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=53054207&itype=CMSID

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2171&context=etd