In the hours after federal immigration officers descended on Glenn Valley Foods, company officials and elected leaders made one point clear: Glenn Valley had worked to avoid the exact situation it found itself in.

As proof, they pointed to the Omaha meatpacking plant’s use of E-Verify, a federal system meant to help employers confirm a person’s ability to work legally in the U.S.

On a bitter October morning in 1982, Chuck Zangger stood in his field near North Loup, staring at the brittle, ruined stalks of corn. The early frost had stolen the popcorn grower’s harvest — 600 acres of kernels that would never pop.

He knelt, scooping a handful of hard, lifeless seeds into his palm, rubbing them between his fingers as the wind whistled through the empty husks. Years of work, gone overnight.