Thread: 30 Kids Left Behind After Immigration Raid

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - About 30 children, some as young as 3 months old, were left without their parents after immigration agents raided a poultry plant and took the parents away to face possible deportation.


While some of the arrested workers were able to call and arrange care for their children, others were not and a local church had to help make arrangements.

The mayor said what happened to the children was a shame.

"A lot of those families had kids in day care in different places, and they didn't know why Mommy and Daddy didn't come pick them up," Arkadelphia Mayor Charles Hollingshead said.

Federal agents arrested 119 people Tuesday in a raid that was triggered after a former worker at Petit Jean Poultry said she supplied others with fake identification cards. Authorities said 115 were from Mexico, two were from Honduras and the others were from El Salvador and Guatemala.

Temple Black, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New Orleans, said Friday that each person arrested was asked whether they had children and they all said they did not.

"We interviewed every person and asked that specific question, and we were told that there were none," he said.

Black later said that some of those arrested told agents that their children were with relatives. Children are normally placed with relatives until their parents are either returned to the community or deported.

Jose Luis Vidal said his sister and brother-in-law left behind children aged 10, 5 and 1 as they were deported to Laredo, Mexico.

"The children are very sad, especially the baby. She cries all the time," Vidal said in an interview conducted in Spanish.

His sister is trying to arrange a work permit to return to the United States, but is not sure of her prospects.

Clark County Sheriff Troy Tucker said agents failed to tell his agency about the raid. If they had, deputies would have made sure the immigration officials knew about the children, some of whom had been in the local public schools for years, he said.

"The kids were just left," Tucker said. "They're not doing their job by simply questioning them and asking them whether they have children and not contacting anyone locally."

Some of the workers agreed to deportation and others have challenged their arrests. Those fighting deportation were released pending hearings and some have returned to Arkadelphia
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050729/ap_ ... s_children

It is sad for the children that their parents would break the law and enter the country illegally. Then the lawbreakers blame law enforcement for doing their jobs!

All they had to do was tell ICE they had kids and ICE would have rounded them up and deported them together.

See what sick people these illegals are?

What decent parent would leave their kids behind?

It's disgusting.

They left them hoping it would be a ticket back.

It is repugnant. We can not have people like this coming into the United States stealing jobs from Americans.

This poultry company had a plant in my hometown which hired 100% Americans. It was very hard work. They deboned chicken dark meat chicken which was shipped to Japan.

They closed the plant a few years ago and I see are hiring illegals in Arkansas.

The plant in my hometown, which is a small community in Missouri, had 300 workers.

Anyone who wants to talk about "Jobs American won't do" can take that lie and stick it where the sun don't shine and choke on it.

I KNOW THE TRUTH!!

What they need to do is contact the Mexican Consulate about the children, take them all there and let the Mexicans worry about reunifying these children with their parents in Mexico.

End of story. Veeeery Simple. I'm sure they have a Consulate Office in Little Rock....probably right across the street from the Clinton Library.



BTW: Good Job ICE!!

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3721277

Deportees already returning less than 3 weeks after raid

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. At least one of the illegal immigrants deported after a raid on an Arkadelphia, Arkansas, poultry plant last month has returned to Arkadelphia.

Doctor Cesar (SAY'-sahr) Compadre (kahm-PAHD'-ray) has been providing medical treatment and supplies to the 30 children were left behind after the raid. He says he gave prenatal care to a woman who had already come back from Mexico.

The woman says she was deported to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, after the July 26th raid and had come back to be with her husband and two small children.

Compadre says the immigration raid on the Petit Jean (PEH'-tih-jeen) poultry plant in Arkadelphia was handled badly. Many -- including Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee -- agree. But the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency says the government was enforcing the laws as it should.

My gosh these people are arrogant and have no regard at all for the law.

Is ICE going to sit on this or deport her again and maybe throw in some serious charges for reentering after being deported?

This is just ludicrous. The nerve! Do they think they're above the law? Seems so, huh?