Elena Shore writes for New America Media.

Thousands of children across the country were left stranded when their parents were arrested in the Dec. 12 raids on Swift and Co. meatpacking plants in six states.

Many of these young people learned of the raids on the local Spanish radio stations, and are turning to local churches for help.

Cornelio, 16, came to Greeley, Colo. three months ago from Guatemala. His mother, a single parent, worked at the Swift meatpacking plant for six years before she was able to bring her only son over.

Cornelio says his mother went to work as usual on Dec. 12. He heard about the immigration raids later that day on the local Spanish station Tigre 1450 AM.

An only child with no other family in the area, Cornelio is now staying with a local family. “I don’t have a dad. I don’t have anything,” he says. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Information about where his mother is being held has been hard to access. “First they told us Texas and then they told us Denver. I don’t know where she is.”

Cornelio says he wants people to know that his mother is not a criminal. “I want them to let my mom go. She didn’t commit any crimes. She was just trying to make enough money so I could eat.” At Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church, Cornelio waits with Flora Belt de la Garza, a volunteer who is helping the families of the 231 people taken in the raids at the Greeley plant, one of six meatpacking plants in six states that was raided Dec. 12 by ICE agents.

“They have converted the (immigrant workers) into criminals,” says Belt de la Garza. “We are called criminals just because we don’t have the opportunity to get a social security number or a driver’s license. We’re just trying to support our families.”