U.S. meatpacking towns face hardships from December immigration raids

Several towns across the U.S. have been reeling since immigration raids were conducted last December in Swift & Company meatpacking facilities. According to the mayor of Marshalltown, Iowa (one of the locations targeted by the raids):

“'There's probably more fear in the immigrant community since the raid’, says Mayor Gene Beach. A community summit will be held Feb. 26 to discuss ways to change immigration laws so ‘people who want to work and contribute to the community’ can stay legally. ‘We really are dealing now with what can we do to make changes in the policies in Washington,’ he says.

Meanwhile, schools in Grand Island, Nebraska are suffering from drops in attendance due to children that have had one or both parents arrested during the raids, while Cactus, Texas- home to the largest Swift plant searched y federal agents- is slowly turning into a ghost town.

Swift & Company expects to return to normal capacity by May though it's unknown if any of the towns will recuperate from the repercussions of the December raids.

Links- VivirLatino, USA TODAY, Sioux City Journal, Boston Globe, Pioneer Press

Image- deseretnews.com (Young girls consoling each other after U.S. immigration officials arrested the mother of three of them)