Advocates: Mississippi plant fired workers left after raid

WITNESSES SAY a Mississippi chicken-processing plant has fired most remaining workers after nearly 100 accused of immigration violations were arrested last week.

Mississippi Immigration Coalition volunteer Terry Truett says she was called to a park in Morton on Tuesday. Former workers at PH Food said they’d been abruptly fired. Workers also tell advocates that the company is withholding pay.

PH Food is one of seven Mississippi plants raided on August 7. Federal agents arrested 680 people accused of working illegally, including 99 at PH Food.

Truett says that remaining workers were later asked to sign identity-verification forms. Truett says managers fired all but “a handful” of workers Tuesday.

The company has declined to comment.

AP PHOTOS In this Thursday, August 8, 2019, photo, Pastor Hugo Villegas (right) and his son, Pablo Villegas (second from right), assist Cade Vowell (left) and his sister, Addison Vowell, second from left, unload donated items for the pantry at the Carlisle Crisis Center in Forest, Mississippi The centre, a ministry of Scott County Baptist Association, says it will need more food items to help out the families affected by the fallout of Wednesday’s raid by US immigration officials at poultry plants Koch Foods and PH Foods in neighbouring Morton.

In this Thursday, August 8, 2019 photo, Jesse Van Fleet (left) assists Jasmine Ward and Myles Wright, 5, of Jackson, to unload donated items for the pantry at the Carlisle Crisis Center in Forest, Mississippi.