Fear, anger follow raids on immigrant workers
MORTON, Miss. — Mississippi residents rallied around terrified children left with no parents, and migrants locked themselves in their homes for fear of being arrested Thursday, a day after the United States’ largest immigration raid in a decade.
A total of 680 people were arrested in Wednesday’s raids, but more than 300 had been released by Thursday morning with notices to appear before immigration judges, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Bryan Cox.
About 270 were released after being taken to a military hangar where they had been brought, and 30 were released at the plants, Cox said. He did not give a reason except to say that those released at the plants were let go due to “humanitarian factors.”
Those released included 18 juveniles, with the youngest being 14 years old, said Jere Miles, special agent in charge of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit in New Orleans. Workers were assessed before they were released, including for whether they had any young children at home.
A small group seeking information about immigrants caught up in the raids gathered Thursday morning outside one of the targeted companies: the Koch Foods Inc. plant in Morton, a small town of roughly 3,000 people about 40 miles east of the capital of Jackson.
“The children are scared,” said Ronaldo Tomas, who identified himself as a worker at another Koch Foods plant in town that wasn’t raided. Tomas, speaking in Spanish, said he has a cousin with two children who was detained in one of the raids.
Gabriela Rosales, a sixyear resident of Morton who knows some of those detained, said she understands that “there’s a process and a law” for those living in the country illegally. “But the thing that they (ICE) did is devastating,” she said. “It was very devastating to see all those kids crying, having seen their parents for the last time.”
On Wednesday, about 600 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents fanned out across plants operated by five companies, surrounding the perimeters to prevent workers from fleeing. Those arrested were taken to the military hangar to be processed for immigration violations.
Before the raid, ICE officials indicated many people would be released with a notice to appear in court because they had never before been through deportation proceedings. Those people were not held, but probably won’t be able to resume their old jobs because the federal government alleges they are here illegally. ICE officials said others would be released if they were pregnant, had small children at home, or had serious health problems.
More than 100 civil rights activists, union organizers and clergy members in Mississippi denounced the raid, but Republican Gov. Phil Bryant commended ICE for the arrests, tweeting that anyone in the country illegally has to “bear the responsibility of that federal violation.”
Children whose parents were detained were being cared for by other family members and friends, said the Rev. Mike O’Brien, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in Canton. Jeff Amy and Rogelio V. Solis are Associated Press writers.