ICE: Most detained Glenn Valley Foods workers being held, processed in North Platte facility

OMAHA — The bulk of the nearly 80 workers detained in a high-profile June 10 immigration raid at a food plant in Omaha are at the Lincoln County Jail in North Platte, according to a Saturday update from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

More than 60 are at the Lincoln County facility pending further proceedings, a statement said.

Three Mexican natives here without proper legal status signed paperwork to voluntarily return to their home country.

Three workers from Guatemala were transferred to Alexandria, Louisiana, in preparation for their removal from the country. Among them, one has a final order of removal that had been issued in 2019, one has been removed from the country on four previous occasions and another has three DUIs and one illegal reentry conviction, according to an ICE statement.

Mark Zito, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Kansas City, a jurisdiction that covers Omaha, again pushed back on what he called a false narrative — that “these are just hardworking immigrants looking for the American dream.”

Zito called that “ludicrous.”

“These crimes have lasting effects,” he said, saying the “real victims” may be left to deal with years of frustration trying to restore their identities.

ICE has said the raid at Glenn Valley Foods was predicated on the suspicion that many workers at the plant used stolen or fraudulent identification to gain employment.

The raid was highly publicized, as federal officials also allowed a national news outlet into the plant to video it. 

The raid set off several anti-ICE and Trump administration protests in Omaha, including one Friday near the NCAA men’s College World Series. Organizers of that march and rally, which drew several hundred people, wanted a national backdrop to let their message be heard.

Saturday, Nebraska and Iowa “No Kings” rallies and others across the country protested what they call authoritarian overreach by the Trump administration.