Worthington city leaders say they were anticipating a sweep for several months so they were not surprised when it happened this week. But they are concerned about the affect it will have on the town, which in the last 10 years has seen an influx of immigrants moving in. 

Worthington is a town of just 11,000 people, yet it has 30 minority-owned businesses. The mayor estimates between 25 and 30 percent of the citizens are Latino. 

He says this sweep proves that the federal government needs to pass immigration reform so that immigrants come there and work .

When Maria Parga first came to Worthington, she was an illegal immigrant and worked at the Swift plant. So she feels for the workers arrested yesterday.

"So sorry for those people because they only want to work," she says. "They only want to have a better future for their families."

Parga now has her legal documentation and her own business, which she thinks will now suffer if more than 200 immigrants are deported.

"If they go, I got to go too. Without my people, what money can pay my bills?" she wonders.

"We don't want to see any of them suffer, but still we've got to follow the law," says Worthington Mayor Alan Oberloh.

He says the city needs the workers, but it needs them there legally, using their own names. And he thinks the Federal Government could do more to help. 

"Instead of the people representing us in Washington pussy-footing around the issue, we need to get comprehensive immigration reform," he says.
 
Parga hopes it's someday easier for immigrants to come to America legally. But she wishes it could have happened before yesterday's raid. 

"I'm brave," she says. "I know I can start again everywhere. But I feel bad for the people who don't have this chance."

The Worthington police department has nearly 20 forgery cases each year involving identity theft. 

And city leaders have met with their senators and representatives to talk about the problem. They say in the near future they'll meet with newly-elected Senator Amy Klobuchar and Representative Tim Waltz to ask them to push the issue in Washington next year.