TinaMaria Fernandez, founder of Hope Esperanza in North Platte, is surrounded by youth participants at the nonprofit she founded in 2021 to plug gaps in services to the area's newcomer communities. The nonprofit was thrust into a wider statewide spotlight when staff and volunteers helped detainees at the North Platte jail that housed a sudden influx of people arrested in the June 10 immigration raid in Omaha. (Courtesy of Hope Esperanza)

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — Founded in this west-central Nebraska railroad town in 2021, the Hope Esperanza nonprofit was thrust into a statewide spotlight this summer when more than 60 undocumented workers from a high-profile immigration raid in Omaha landed at the local jail.

The agency’s bilingual team stepped up as interpreters and support links for both th

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