The Department of Justice has released a report announcing that federal immigration agents made a criminal search warrant at a poultry processing plant in Greenville, South Carolina, and arrested nearly 300 workers. The federal agents went to the Columbia Farms at 9 a.m. after 10 months during which they tracked down numerous employment practices.

Barbara Gonzales, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stated that nearly 60 people of those arrested were allowed to go home and to take care of their families. The others were taken to ICE detention facility in the area. Gonzales added that “They are all illegals. We have charged them with being in violation of U.S. immigration laws.”

Criminal charges were filled for eleven supervisors and a human resources manager. According to the Associated Press, the big arrest caused a lot of scandal as many families and friends of the workers gathered round the poultry processing plant trying to understand what the problem was.

Maria Juan, 22, of the relatives said that "Families are going to be broken apart. There will be kids and babies left behind. Why are they doing this? Why? They didn't do anything. They only wanted to work." No answers could be found because no one from House of Raeford Farms in Raeford, North Carolina or from Columbia Farms responded to the press questions.

A report from February stated that the plant workers were illegally in the country and the managers from the company knew it. It seems that they wished to keep its workers, than obey the rules. Dan Kowalski, an Austin, Texas-based lawyer specializing in immigration law, said that this raid has been “a drop in the bucket” that didn’t oblige any immigrant to return to his country.