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 first of a two-part series.
Read and listen to part two here.
[Calves mooing]
Becky and Billy Yancey are the third generation in the family to farm this land on the outskirts of Luray. Three hundred acres of corn feed their herd of about 200 cows, whose milk ends up in stores in Maryland and Virginia under the Maola brand.
BECKY YANCEY: We have good employees that treat our cows well. We treat our cows well because they treat us well.
After they got married, the Yanceys restarted Billy's family's dairy operation in 1992. They usually had one or two employees in the early years.
BECKY YANCEY: Our experience with hiring locals to milk has not been good. For 28 years, we tried to hire every local person that would apply for the job, or would come in, that thought that they were interested in the job. They don't show up. They quit on the spot, no notice, which – we're 24/7 here, we're not – there's no days off here. … And we've always paid above minimum wage, always. … So, five years ago, we decided that we were going to try a Hispanic worker, and that's Carlos. … We got along beautifully.
Carlos Nieto-Martinez, originally from Mexico, came to them from another farm they knew. Their dairy co-op told them what paperwork he needed to provide.
BECKY YANCEY: I mean, he had a social security number. He paid taxes! He paid social security! He filed his taxes! … We run a legitimate business. We have a tax ID number. We take social security, we take federal, we take state, we take it all out.
BILLY YANCEY: No dairy exists much anymore without Hispanic labor, of any size whatsoever. Either you have family or you're going to utilize Hispanic labor. And the large Midwestern dairies are just getting bigger. They're adding 10,000 cows. They're adding – I mean, the numbers are scary. … There is no other labor force for dairy.
They said hiring workers through the H2A visa program isn't an option, since those are for seasonal or temporary work – and wouldn't meet the dairy's ongoing, around-the-year needs.
After Nieto-Martinez, the Yanceys hired three men from Honduras to fill out their crew of eight employees. The men moved into Billy's late parents' ranch home and a camper on the property.
BECKY YANCEY: They came to work. They work 60 hours a week and want more time!
Having a capable workforce meant the Yanceys could finally take vacations with their daughter and grandson. The family was at Lake Anna the night of June 12.
BECKY YANCEY: So at nine o'clock we get a weird phone call from Carlos, and he's asking if someone can come pick him up. Now, Carlos' English is still broken, so what we think he was asking was, can someone come get the car? His phone went blank. So then, right after that, Martir, another worker, called Billy, and I think the only thing he said was "ICE." And he dropped a pin where the car is, and then his phone went.
The four men had gone to Walmart to get groceries on the specific day that ICE was conducting an operation with the Page County Sheriff's Office – through which they detained 16 people, as WMRA previously reported.
Nieto-Martinez and Martir Reyes later recounted this night 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): We were leaving Walmart when a police officer drove by and parked behind us, about three rows of cars away. We were loading our things. … I told the guys to hurry up and put everything in the car because I did not know what they were up to. Then we left, and one of them followed us in what looked like an unmarked civilian car. We were driving normally, but as we crossed the bridge, they flashed their lights at us like the police, so I pulled over.
And here's Reyes' –
HUGO MORALES (reading a message from Reyes): I was calling Billy; as soon as I tried to call him, they snatched my phone from me, dragged me out of the car and threw me onto the road, and they beat me and Cristian. I don’t think that was right, because they had no reason to do it.
WMRA obtained body camera footage from the traffic stop via a Freedom of Information Act request.
RECORDING DEPUTY (on body camera footage): Did the front passenger get squirrelly?
We'll discuss that – and what's happened to the four men and the farm since – in part two of this report.
