An ICE raid gutted a town in Trump's first term. Now, fear of a repeat.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

An ICE raid gutted a town in Trump’s first term. Now, fear of a repeat.

{snip picture}

Like many Hispanic residents in O'Neill, Nebraska, Leydi Flores worries about how her community is being affected by federal immigration raids. The tiny town went through a shattering raid in 2018.

Tiny O’Neill, Nebraska, is still recovering from the 2018 raid. It forced some businesses to close and left many residents, especially immigrants, reeling.

Today at 6:00 a.m. EST
9 min

By Annie Gowen and Sarah L. Voisin
Gowen, a reporter who covers the Midwest, and Voisin, a photojournalist based in Washington, traveled to O’Neill to understand the long-term impact of a 2018 immigration raid in the community.

O’NEILL, Neb. — The Flores family invited almost everybody they knew to baby Elian’s first birthday party, but Leydi Flores wasn’t sure whether anyone would show up.

Her family’s Mexican restaurant has had a ghostly feel in recent days, as many Latino families in this rural farming town lay low, scared that they might become targets of President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Across the country, raids have ensnared thousands and crowded immigration detention centers.

{snip}

By Annie Gowen
Annie Gowen is a correspondent for The Post's National desk. She was the India bureau chief from 2013 to 2018. follow on X@anniegowen

By Sarah L. Voisin
Sarah L. Voisin has been a photographer at The Washington Post since 1998. She is co-founder of Women Photojournalists of Washington and has won numerous awards, many have been for her coverage of immigration, Mexico, Central America and Cuba. follow on X@sarahvoisin

[NJCher]

1. this is an excellent story

Lots of pictures. There is a huge--and I mean huge--glassed-in tomato farm--completely out of commission. Why? The article says they can't find enough workers. A picture of that is in the article.

Many years ago, I was paid to visit certain greenhouse operations around the country. This is one of the tomato farms I visited. It's incredible how huge this place is. Because there are hail storms in this part of the country, they have a technology that disrupts the formation of the hailstone. They showed it to me. It's kind of like a rocket type operation and when it goes off, makes a very loud sound.

At the time I visited, they had a manager from The Netherlands running this operation. He was very cordial and spent time showing me around the facility. If I recall, it employed around 70 people.