680 arrested in workplace ICE raids
MORTON, Miss. — U. S. immigration officials raided seven Mississippi chicken processing plants Wednesday, arresting 680 mostly Latino workers in the largest workplace sting in at least a decade.
The raids happened just hours before President Donald Trump visited El Paso, Texas, the majority- Latino border city where a man linked to an online screed about a “Hispanic invasion” was charged in a shooting that left 22 people dead.
About 600 U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fanned out across the plants operated by five companies, surrounding the perimeters to prevent workers from fleeing.
Mississippi is the nation’s fifth- largest chicken producing state and the plants’ tough processing jobs have mainly been filled by Latino immigrants. Chicken plants dominate the economies of Morton and other small towns east of Jackson.
All clear at USA Today
McLEAN, Va. — The northern Virginia office building that houses USA Today was evacuated for several hours Wednesday for what police said was an unsubstantiated report of an armed man.
Fairfax County police Chief Edwin Roessler said SWAT teams had searched “every inch” of the building after receiving a 911 call around noon reporting that someone who previously worked there had been seen with a gun.
The person referenced in the 911 call was located elsewhere, Chief Roessler said. No one in the building was hurt and there was no indication that anyone had committed a crime, he said.
‘ Hoax’ fallout for Fox host
Fox’s Tucker Carlson is being roundly criticized for claiming that America’s white supremacy problem “is a hoax.”
It’s “just like the Russia hoax,” he told his viewers Tuesday. “It’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power.”
This claim came after several days of scrutiny of the El Paso shooting suspect’s racist views and the forces that may have radicalized him. Many politicians have warned about the growing threat of white nationalist violence.
Mr. Carlson asserted that “the whole thing is a lie.”
Dems on ‘ red flag’ laws
WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, put the brakes on Republicans’ quick embrace of “red flag” laws as a response to last weekend’s gun violence, saying on Wednesday that any gun- related legislation moving through the Senate must be accompanied by a House bill requiring background checks on all gun purchasers.
Red flag laws allow the authorities to obtain a special type of protective order — known as an extreme risk protection order, or ERPO — to remove guns from people deemed dangerous. Republicans, including President Donald Trump, are coalescing around the concept.
“We Democrats are not going to settle for half measures so Republicans can feel better and try to push the issue of gun violence off to the side,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, has blocked consideration of the House bills.
Panic in Times Square
Police say motorcycles backfiring in the popular New York tourist destination Times Square led people to believe they were at the center of a mass shooting Tuesday about 10 p. m. near Seventh Avenue and 46th Street.
The backfiring bikes sent people into a panic, with a stampede picking up when terrified people screamed “shooter.” Several pedestrians were injured in the chaos but nothing was life- threatening, WLNY reported.