A dairy farm in Page County lost half of their employees when they were detained in a traffic stop and deported in June. Their story illustrates the nature of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's partnerships with local law enforcement, and the impact of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign on American family farms. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports in the second of a two-part series.
Read and listen to part one here.
As we reported in part one, Billy and Becky Yancey have run a dairy farm on Billy's family land near Luray for more than three decades. In recent years, they hired four men from Mexico and Honduras to fill out their staff of eight farm workers. Those four men were detained by the Page County Sheriff's Office on June 12 after going to Walmart to buy groceries. They were quickly transferred to ICE custody as part of a one-day immigration enforcement operation in the Luray area.
WMRA obtained body camera footage from this traffic stop via a Freedom of Information Act request. It begins with the car stopped on the side of the road. Page County Lieutenant Casey Bryant leads the stop, wearing a vest that says "POLICE - ICE." He says officers pulled the men over for failing to maintain their lane, and asks them for identification. Sheriff Chad Cubbage appears on the scene as they're handcuffing the guys. The deputies express sympathy for the farm owners, and chat about the day's ICE operation. They make no mention of suspecting any of the men of having a criminal record.
RECORDING DEPUTY: I do feel bad for the Yanceys, 'cause they're going. … How many's that?
UNIDENTIFIED DEPUTY: Oh, this is 10 or 11.
RECORDING DEPUTY: 'Cause we let one go.
UNIDENTIFIED DEPUTY: But then I guess the interdiction unit's got six or seven.
RECORDING DEPUTY: Six arrests, or?
UNIDENTIFIED DEPUTY: Yeah.
MAJOR STEVIE OWENS: It's a good night!
RECORDING DEPUTY: Jail's pissed! [laughs]
OWENS: Actually, they're loving it.
The video shows the moment when Martir Reyes is thrown to the ground, although it's seen through a car window on the other side of the vehicle. The footage stops after the recording deputy later asks another officer what happened.
RECORDING DEPUTY: Did the front passenger get squirrelly? Or did he fall in that ditch?
UNIDENTIFIED DEPUTY 2: No, he uh, he didn't want to put his phone down. [video cuts off]
The driver, Carlos Nieto-Martinez, was not written a ticket for his alleged traffic infraction. Reyes and Nieto-Martinez later recounted this experience in text messages to the Yanceys, and agreed for the family to share them with WMRA. We had them translated into English and read by a voice actor, Hugo Morales.
Here's an excerpt from Nieto-Martinez's text –
HUGO MORALES (reading a message from Nieto-Martinez): They did not give us blankets or anything to protect us from the cold. It was extremely cold, and we kept asking for blankets, but they refused. … It was a terrible experience. They put us on a plane and sent us to Texas, then from Texas to Louisiana. They held me there for five days.
And here's Reyes –
HUGO MORALES (reading a message from Reyes): While the ICE officer was interviewing us, he forced us to sign the deportation order. He told us that … if we didn't sign we would spend six months locked up in jail. … They gave us an injection. We don't know what medicine they gave us.
All four eventually consented to deportation, rather than remaining incarcerated indefinitely. WMRA sent ICE a list of questions about their accounts, including whether any of the men have a criminal record, which facilities they were held in, if detainees are administered vaccines, and if they are ever denied blankets upon request.
A spokesperson emailed a statement confirming the deportation of two of the men to Honduras, but did not answer our other questions.
Sheriff Chad Cubbage declined an interview request.
The Page County Sheriff's Office is one of 27 Virginia law enforcement agencies that have "287(g) agreements" with ICE, through which local officers are authorized to carry out immigration enforcement. Paperwork shows that Page County has requested $107,500 from ICE for a transportation and equipment stipend for their collaboration. A sheriff's office spokesperson told WMRA they haven't received any money yet.
These arrests took place a year to the day after President Donald Trump told reporters that ICE shouldn't target farm workers, as Forbes reported.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (archive tape): Our farmers are being hurt badly. You know, they have very good workers. They've worked for them for 20 years. They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be, you know, great, and we're going to have to do something about that. We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back …
This sentiment rings hollow to the Yanceys.
BILLY YANCEY: I mean, there's plenty of videos out there, he says, "I'm not going to harm the farmer," but that's a lie.
In the eight weeks since the arrests, the family has tried to hire local employees – some of whom immediately didn't show up for work. They do have six people on the crew now.
BECKY YANCEY: We're all in our 50s, 60s, and 70s except for one young buck that has burnt the candle at both ends.
They've had to sell cows to lighten the workload.
BECKY YANCEY: So, we've been going since '92. … Started off with 66 cows, and we grew and grew until we were milking 250. … Well, we did. We've been selling cows left and right because we had to stop the bleeding. We have no labor. It's too much – can't do it. We've sold 30 cows this week.
BILLY YANCEY: Now our only option is to downsize, is to get back down to where our current employees and myself, we can handle it.
They stay in touch with the men – and Nieto-Martinez, at least, hopes he can find a way to come back.
BECKY YANCEY: We've left his camper exactly the way it is.
In the meantime, they're down to 217 cows – forced to whittle away their American dream.
