Reverend: 'Terror hit' when children were at school
Authorities hailed the sweep at food processing plants in six cities as a record-setting operation. At least 680 undocumented immigrants were detained. More than 300 of them had been released by Thursday, Bryan D. Cox, an ICE spokesman, said in a statement. The arrests came as a result of administrative and criminal search warrants executed by special agents from Homeland Security Investigations, federal officials said. "Today, through the hard work of these men and women, we are once again becoming a nation of laws," US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi Mike Hurst said as he announced the arrests Wednesday. Immigrant rights advocates, religious leaders and local officials sharply criticized the raids, noting that a number of children returned to empty homes after the arrests, which occurred on the first day of school. "Our brothers and sisters, our fellow citizens -- 6 years old, 5 years old, 7 years old, 11 years old, they left to go to school yesterday, excited about education, and terror hit them while they were gone," said the Rev. James Evans, a co-founder of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance. At a press conference denouncing the raids, Evans and other leaders urged Mississippi residents to stand together and support each other. Advocates shared a hotline for anyone directly impacted by the raids. Luis Espinoza, an organizer with the alliance, teared up as he described seeing detained workers and said the immigrants who were detained are in need of legal and financial assistance. "I don't see illegals. I don't see bad people. It's only families, fathers, mothers who want something better for the kids, so they come here and just work," he said. "They are not criminals." Speaking to reporters outside a plant in Canton, Mississippi, Mayor William Truly Jr. said he was concerned about the impact the arrests would have on the local economy -- and on the community. "I recognize that ICE comes under the Department of Homeland Security, and this is an order of the United States. There's nothing I don't think anybody can do about it," he said. "But my main concern is now, what happens to the children?" ICE Acting Director Matt Albence told reporters Wednesday that some parents would be released with GPS ankle monitors but allowed to go to back to their homes as their immigration proceedings continued. In the past, he said, the agency has worked with school liaisons to help "find placement" for children when their parents are detained. "Each case, depends on the individual circumstance. A parent being apprehended ... happens throughout law enforcement," he said. "You go out to any jurisdiction, state, local or otherwise, and they make an arrest of somebody, and that individual is a parent, that individual is going to go to jail, and that child's going to be left alone or with a family member."Busloads of immigrants dropped off
Outside the Morton plant on Wednesday, an 11-year-old girl sobbed and begged an officer for a chance to see her mom as bystanders tried to comfort her. "Please, can I just see my mother?" the girl cried out in video broadcast live on Facebook. Elizabeth Iraheta told CNN she shared the video so people would see what was happening at the plant, where she said she's worked legally for 19 years. It was devastating, Iraheta said, to see family and friends suffering "just for coming to work hard in this country, and to see so many families separated." The video later shows an officer noting that the mother is being processed "because she doesn't have papers to be here legally," then later telling the crying girl that her mother would be released and wouldn't be deported. Hours later, witnesses said, the girl's mother was released. Friends, coworkers and family watch as U.S. immigration officials raid a plant in Morton, Mississippi. Videos shared on social media showed busloads of immigrants returning to one plant's parking lot in the early morning hours as onlookers cheered. One witness said she thought about 20 people had been released from custody. Authorities haven't publicly spoken about what sites were targeted, citing a pending criminal investigation. They've also declined to answer questions about whether any employers had been arrested or would face charges. A senior immigration official with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that ICE used confidential informants employed at several of the raided food processing plants to identify managers or supervisors who knew they were hiring undocumented workers. In some cases, immigration enforcement received audio and video recordings. CNN has reached out to the food processing plants for comment. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stepped up worksite enforcement since President Donald Trump took office, conducting a number of large-scale raids at food-processing plants and gardening centers in recent years.DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
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