Federal immigration raid at Omaha meat production plant sparks protests

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Immigration authorities raided an Omaha meat production plant Tuesday morning and took dozens of workers away in buses, leaving company officials bewildered because they said they had followed the law.

The raid happened around 9 a.m. at Glenn Valley Foods in south Omaha, an area where nearly a quarter of residents were foreign born according to the 2020 census.

A small group of people came out to protest the raid, and some of them even jumped on the front bumper of a vehicle to try to stop officers in one location while others threw rocks at officials’ vehicles as a white bus carrying workers pulled away from a plant.

Chad Hartmann, president of the food packaging company, said the front office was stunned by the aggressive nature of federal officials' raid and confused by why the company was targeted.

“My biggest issue is: why us?" Hartmann said. “We do everything by the book.”

The plant uses E-Verify, the federal database used to check the immigration status of employees. When he said as much to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who carried out the raid, they told him the E-Verify system “is broken.”

“I mean, what am I supposed to do with that?” Hartmann said. “This is your system, run by the government. And you're raiding me because your system is broken?”

Omaha police and the Douglas County sheriff said immigration officials had warned them about their plans, and their departments helped block off traffic around the neighborhood where many food production plants are located while ICE officers worked.

Meatpacking plants rely heavily on immigrant workers who are willing to do the physically demanding work. The industry has not yet been the focus of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, but the administration has been intensifying its efforts in recent weeks. Trump called out the National Guard this week to respond to ongoing protests in Los Angeles over his immigration policies.

CEO and owner Gary Rohwer told WOWT in Omaha he wasn’t made aware of the operation ahead of time. He said federal agents entered the plant with a list of 97 people they wanted to screen.

“Of course not. It’s a raid,” said Rohwer, whose company makes the Gary's QuickSteak brand of ready-to-grill steak.

Estefania Favila, a supervisor at Glenn Valley Foods, said she was in a morning meeting when federal officials began banging on the plant's doors and yelling, “Homeland Security!”

“They just came in and said that it was a raid and we had to get everybody out of production," Favila said. Employees were separated by those who had documents showing they were U.S. citizens, those who had valid work documents and those who did not have documents, she said.

About 70 people were taken away in buses with the windows blacked out, Favila said. Among them were two of her cousins who immigrated from Honduras, she said.

ICE officials confirmed in an email the raid at Glenn Valley Foods, saying it was “based on an ongoing criminal investigation into the large-scale employment of aliens without authorization to work in the United States.” They said it was likely the largest ”worksite enforcement operation" in Nebraska since the start of Trump's second term.

Hartmann, the company president, said he planned to contact Republican Rep. Don Bacon, who represents the district, and other Nebraska leaders to try to get answers. By Tuesday afternoon, Bacon had issued a statement saying the ICE raid sought to investigate stolen identities and that “ICE verified that Glen Valley Foods complied with E-Verify 100% and is a victim in this as well.”

Douglas County Commissioner Roger Garcia, who rushed out of a regular meeting Tuesday morning after he learned about the raid, said the community is shaken.

“It clearly instills a lot of fear,” said Garcia, who represents the area. “People are asking me if this is going to continue for multiple days here in Omaha. People are asking me if this is going to spread to other cities.”

A person holds a sign outside of Glenn Valley Foods, a meat packaging company that was raided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Margery A. Beck)

Federal agents are seen near Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Neb., Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

Federal agents are seen near Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, Neb., Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

Glenn Valley Foods, a meat packaging company that was raided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Margery A. Beck)

Sara Schulte-Bukowinski, a faith leader in Omaha, Neb., holds a sign protesting an immigration raid, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at Glenn Valley Foods, a meat packaging plant in south Omaha. (AP Photo/Margery A. Beck)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)