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Last edited Sun Jan 10, 2016, 01:43 AM - Edit history (1)

KEY ISSUES: 'What a sad day it is,' woman's husband says



Marshalltown, Ia. - Marcelo Merida wants to know where his wife is.

He last saw her when immigration agents found her hiding among some boxes at the Swift & Co. plant, where they both work. She and dozens of other workers were loaded onto buses and taken to an unknown location.

Merida has no answers for their two teenage children.

"What a sad day it is. They split up many families," he said. "There are many children who came home and didn't have any parents. How will they get along?"

The raid could also further divide a city learning to embrace diversity. About 75 percent of Swift's 2,200 employees are members of minority groups, mostly Hispanic. Residents have been known to rally around immigrant families in need and support those facing deportation.

"I've been so proud of our spirit of tolerance and acceptance here," said Mary Carter, who works at a bakery in town. "We are - or at least we were - becoming so much more united. I just hope it hasn't all been ruined now."

Maria Lira, a former Swift worker who became a citizen in 2005, said friends disappeared Tuesday.

"The community is destroyed. Kids are all scared that their parents will be taken away from them," she said.

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http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061213/BUSINESS/612130392/1001