June 10th: Reflections One Year Later and Our Path Toward Resilience
Today marks one year since life was disrupted on what started as a typical Tuesday morning. On June 10, 2025, our community faced the largest coordinated Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) action in our city’s history. For many, the memory remains vivid. The empty chairs at dinner tables, the shuttered storefronts on South 24th Street, and the heavy cloud of uncertainty that settled over our neighborhoods. As we look back on that day, we do so not to dwell on the fear, but to honor the united front that emerged and the resilience that has defined our recovery.
The Day the Heartland Stood Together
The 2025 raids were designed to isolate and intimidate people. Instead, they ignited a movement of radical solidarity. In the immediate aftermath:
Rapid Response: Within hours, our partners at the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement (CIRA) established emergency resources that included hotlines and legal clinics.
Community Care: Neighbors who had never met were suddenly organizing carpools for school runs and grocery deliveries for families whose primary breadwinners had been detained.
Clear Communications: HWC, along with our partners, shared clear and accurate information to reduce confusion over the days and weeks that followed.
“A year ago, the goal of the raids was to make our community feel small. Today, we are louder and more connected than ever.”
Confidence Through Informed Planning
Our greatest lesson of the past year is that while we cannot always predict a crisis, we can always prepare for one. Fear thrives in the unknown; preparedness thrives in action.
In 2025, HWC distributed 7,721 Family Safety Plans to help individuals and families move from a state of "what if" to a state of "I am ready". Visit our Family Safety Plan page to request your presentation or to access Community Resources about your rights.
This anniversary serves as a vital reminder to revisit your family’s safety strategy:
Does every member of your household know where vital documents (passports, birth certificates, medical records) are kept?
Have you officially designated a trusted guardian and shared that plan with your children’s school?
Everyone in the family should memorize one phone number of a lawyer or a trusted advocate who can be reached immediately.
Re-familiarize yourself with the constitutional right to remain silent and the right to refuse entry without a judicial warrant. These rights do not expire.
Moving Forward, Not Backward
“A year ago, the goal of the raids was to make our community feel small,” Executive Director Lina Traslaviña Stover said. “Today, we are louder and more connected than ever. We have spent the last year advocating for local protections and building a network of allies and resources across Nebraska. We remember June 2025 not as the day we were broken, but as the day we realized exactly how much power we have when we stand together.”
You are protected here. You are prepared here. You belong here.
Read more in our 2025 Annual Report which highlights a year of resilience, community action, and connection.
