Plant reportedly fires workers left after ICE raid

A Mississippi chicken processing plant fired most of its remaining workers after nearly 100 accused of immigration violations were arrested last week, witnesses said, an indication that the crackdown could make finding work in the state’s poultry industry more difficult for Latino immigrants.

Terry Truett, a volunteer with the Mississippi Immigration Coalition, said she and others were called Tuesday to a Morton park where former PH Food workers were staging a protest, saying the company had fired them at the end of their shift and was illegally withholding pay.

It’s unclear how many were fired, although Truett said more than 100 workers’ names were collected at the protest in Morton, about 40 miles east of Jackson.

PH Food is one of seven Mississippi plants raided Aug. 7 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The agency arrested 680 people accused of working in the United States without legal permission, quickly releasing about 300. ICE also seized company documents as part of an investigation into what managers knew. ICE said it arrested 99 people at PH Food.

Normally, when a company with more than 100 employees lays off more than a third of its workforce, it must give 60 days’ notice to affected employees, and local and state government.

Dianne Bell, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Security, said PH Foods has not filed notice with the state. Bell said a company employee told her Wednesday that there had been no layoffs.

The company told The Associated Press on Wednesday to call back and later hung up on a reporter. On Thursday, a person who answered the phone said the company isn’t commenting.

Truett and others say most of the people ICE arrested at PH Food worked on the first shift. Secondshift workers trickled back to work in the days after the raid even though most lack legal status, according to the Rev. Roberto Mena, pastor of St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church. “Some — almost all of them — they are undocumented in some way,” Mena said.

TERRY TRUETT/AP Workers from PH Foods and their backers gather at a protest Tuesday in Morton, Miss.