Immigration enforcement operation reported at Moroni turkey plant

MORONI—Immigration officers stopped drivers and detained turkey plant workers in Moroni late Wednesday night, according to roughly a dozen community sources related to the detainees, and as many or more residents sent tips to the Messenger Thursday through social media.

Workers who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation described marked and unmarked trucks working the plant road on Wednesday, Sept. 30.

Multiple sources say families spent Thursday calling the federal detainee locator trying to find their loved ones, and many in the local Hispanic community stayed in their homes out of fear.

“An unmarked black truck with someone pulled over (was) on our plant road” a plant worker who witnessed the stop told the Messenger. “It was very dark so I couldn’t really see who it was.”

Later, she said, the truck later followed her close enough to read her plate: “The truck almost rear ended me while I was going through the dip. After they got extremely close and what I assume was reading my plate, they backed off.”

At about 10 p.m. a coworker called her to confirm what she already suspected, saying the vehicles were immigration officers.

The night shift at the processing plant is the center of nearly every account the Messenger has received.

A worker at the plant said undercover officers were outside as the shift let out. “We finished working at 9 p.m. and that’s when people started getting pulled over heavily,” said another worker who asked for anonymity, and said she knew of multiple people taken by the officers.

A woman contacted the Messenger and said her husband was pulled over for an improper stop leaving the plant’s parking lot, and that he called her on FaceTime during the stop.

“The officer, when he went back to my husband to give him his documents (driver’s license, etc.), he stated that he was actually ICE and he was now being detained,” she told the Messenger. She said he was later transferred to a detainment facility in Salt Lake City.

Counts vary widely as to how many were detained. One county resident related to a detainee reported that “there were about 13 people taken.” A plant worker said 10 or 12. A social media account claimed at least 15. Some claims put the numbers even higher.

The Messenger reached out to ICE offices for details about the operation, but as of Thursday night had not received a response. But look for expanded coverage on the matter in the upcoming print issue, out next Thursday, Oct. 8.

Several sources described the same stop tactic, saying that people were stopped “with the same excuse that their license plates lights were not working. But they are working.” The same person said that officers asked for ID but didn’t ask for insurance.

“It feels more like they are targeting people, and it’s a way to see their status,” they told the Messenger.

What role local police played is disputed. One source reported that North Valley Police Department officers were on the stops, “as if they were traffic stops.” The Messenger will confirm what role the NVPD played in the expanded version of this article in the print edition.

One source described people hiding when the operation became obvious to plant workers.

“People were hiding on the roof of the turkey plant,” they said. The same source provided video footage taken from the roof by the frightened workers during their attempt to conceal themselves.

Another said the fear reached people with full legal status.

“Even the legal Hispanic community is scared right now,” the source told the Messenger.

Some school attendance was affected the following day. An anonymous educator who works with students wrote, “I have a lot of students absent today and I’m worried about them.”

Another resident wrote that “there were basically only white kids at recess,” and that the town was “like a ghost town.”

Another resident said roughly 30 percent of plant employees reported to work: “It’s so quiet there.”

A trucker reported being told to park his truck with live turkeys in it because there weren’t enough workers to handle them. He remarked he was unsure how long the cargo would end up sitting because of the issue.

A resident who lost a neighbor to the operation wrote, “They took my neighbor; he’s a great guy.”

Some local residents stepped up to help during the situation. A county resident told the Messenger that they had spent the day informing families of their rights.

“Many people are afraid to go out and haven’t gone to work,” they told the Messenger.

Still other local residents offered help on social media, saying they would drop off groceries or medicine if needed for those who were too frightened to leave their homes.

Some reports circulated on social media that a large group of law enforcement vehicles, possibly tied to an immigration-related operation, was working in Ephraim, but those rumors were apparently mistaken. The vehicles had been parked by officers attending a scheduled crisis intervention training session.

If you cannot reach a loved one who may have been taken into custody, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement runs an online detainee locator at locator.ice.gov. A search can be made by the person’s name, or by an alien registration number if the family has one. A person must be entered into the system before the locator will return a result, so a search may come up empty in the hours immediately after an arrest. The locator is the fastest way for a family to learn which facility is holding someone.