On December 12, 2006, ICE raided six Swift amp; Company processing plants across the country. Many of the 262 workers picked up in Greeley were suspected of identity theft.
Most have been deported or are awaiting immigration hearings. Eighteen were moved through the Weld County court system.
Groups in Greeley that oppose the raid say the operation split hundreds of families and left many children parentless.
"They remain with their uncles and aunts, older sisters and brothers," said Rene Gonzalez, a member of the faith-based community group Congregations Building Community. "It's pretty traumatic in that sense where they don't have that family core, where their parents are still out and, in some cases they don't know where they are."
Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, who has been an outspoken supporter of the immigration raid, calls that argument "nonsense."
"Every time we arrest a criminal, we are taking a breadwinner away from a family and there are often children involved in those situations," Buck said.
Both sides agree that that December morning transformed Greeley and how it is perceived across the country.
"I think people are looking at Greeley as a microcosm of what's happening in the country, but I don't think it's a focal point," Buck said. "I think what's happening in Greeley is happening in a lot of communities in America."
In Greeley, though, the issue stands exceptionally tall, even playing a factor in the recent mayoral race.
"I think there was some influence on that race," said Ed Clark, who defeated incumbent mayor Tom Selders.
Selders had made a trip to Washington, D.C. to lay out how the raids negatively affected Greeley.
Clark won partly due to his stance on illegal immigration.
"I think it's incumbent upon local municipalities to step forward and do what they can for the citizenry until the federal government can come forward and help us with a solution," Clark said.
The federal government is now showing some presence in Greeley. It has already posted two ICE officers at the Weld County Jail.
Gonzalez thinks such resources could be better spent, but says he still hopes some of the tension now apparent in Greeley will ease.
"Obviously, the bad part is it creates some more divisiveness in the community, but within the past year, there's a lot of strides people have made on both sides, I guess, to try and mend this," he said.
Swift amp; Company says it has recovered from the raids. It continues to stress that the federal government needs to create a system that allows companies to better monitor whether employees are working under a stolen identity.
ICE officials declined to comment.
