Thread: Immigration raids hit Mississippi food processing plants

Immigration raids hit Mississippi food processing plants

[By ROGELIO SOLIS AND JEFF AMY
AUG. 7, 2019 8:35 AM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MORTON, Miss. — U.S. immigration officials raided several Mississippi food processing plants on Wednesday and signaled that the early-morning strikes were part of a large-scale operation targeting owners as well as employees.

Employees filled three buses — two for men and one for women — at a Koch Foods Inc. plant in tiny Morton, 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Jackson. They were taken to a military hangar to be processed for immigration violations. About 70 family, friends and residents waved goodbye and shouted, “Let them go! Let them go!” Later, two more buses arrived.

A tearful 13-year-old boy whose parents are from Guatemala waved goodbye to his mother, a Koch worker, as he stood beside his father. Workers who were confirmed to have legal status were allowed to leave the plant after having their trunks searched.

“It was a sad situation inside,” said Domingo Candelaria, a legal resident and Koch worker who said authorities checked employees’ identification documents.

The sting was another demonstration of President Donald Trump carrying out his signature domestic priority to crack down illegal immigration. Later in the day, he was scheduled to visit El Paso, Texas, where a gunman linked to an online screed about a “Hispanic invasion” allegedly killed 22 people in the border city.

Such large shows of force were common under President George W. Bush, most notably at a kosher meatpacking plant in tiny Postville, Iowa, in 2008. President Barack Obama avoided them, limiting his workplace immigration efforts to low-profile audits that were done outside of public view.

Trump resumed workplace raids, but the months of preparation and hefty resources they require make them rare. Last year, the administration hit a landscaping company near Toledo, Ohio, and a meatpacking plant in eastern Tennessee.

A hangar at the Mississippi National Guard in Flowood, near Jackson, was set up to process employees for immigration violations on Wednesday. There were seven lines, one for each location. Buses had been lined up since early in the day to be dispatched to the plants.


“I’ve never done anything like this,” Chris Heck, resident agent in charge of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit in Jackson, told The Associated Press inside the hangar. “This is a very large worksite operation.”

Koch Foods, based in Park Ridge, Illinois, is one of the largest poultry producers in the U.S. and employs about 13,000 people. The company has no relation to prominent conservative political donors and activists Charles and David Koch.

The company has operations in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio and Tennessee. Forbes ranks it as the 135th largest privately held company in the U.S., with an estimated $3.2 billion in annual revenue.

The company, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, said when it received an industry award in February that the Morton plant produces more than 700,000 tons of poultry feed a year.

Agents arrived at the Morton plant, passing a chain-link fence with barbed wire on top, with a sign that said the company was hiring. Mike Hurst, the U.S. attorney for Mississippi, was at the scene.

Workers had their wrists tied with plastic bands and were told to deposit personal belongings in clear plastic bags.

Agents collected the bags before they boarded buses.

“This will affect the economy,” Maria Isabel Ayala, a child care worker for plant employees, said as the buses left.

“Without them here, how will you get your chicken?”

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...807-story.html

ICE raids sweep through multiple locations in Mississippi

ICE conducts federal search warrant in Mississippi

STATE / REGIONAL
by: DeAngelo Vaxter
Posted: Aug 7, 2019 / 12:00 PM CDT / Updated: Aug 7, 2019 / 12:00 PM CDT

“Federal agents have issued a warrant and now raiding PECO foods in Bay Springs. It looks to be ICE. There looks to be no danger, but Federal agents and a helicopter are flying over PECO.”

Lindsay Williams Public Affairs Officer says, “agents from Homeland Security Investigations are conducting a federal search warrant in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.”

Williams says the investigation has nothing to do with immigration. It is a federal search warrant and they are searching the premises and conducting the operation.
Williams says Homeland Security does not round people up, they do targeted enforcement but today is a federal search warrant.

The search is said to take several hours but they gave no word on what they specifically are looking for.

Mayor of Canton, Williams Truly, was surprised by the presence of ICE in the community.

“They are going around finding who is documented or not. The ones who are not documented, they are rounding them up and putting them on buses.”

The agencies are acting on an order from the federal government to round up undocumented immigrants says Truly.

The mayor says he is concerned about the children, what will happen to them. Also what will happen to Peco’s workforce and how it might impact Canton.

This woman tells 12 News she has family members inside


According to the Associated Press, dozens of agents were witnessed preparing to process workers inside of a military facility in Flowood with seven lines, one for each located visited by agents.

U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst, Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Matthew T. Albence, and ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)-New Orleans Special Agent in Charge Jere T. Miles will hold a press conference today at 2:00 p.m.

The presser will be held to announce the results of the execution of federal search warrants by HSI special agents today at multiple locations across the state of Mississippi as part of a coordinated operation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi following an ongoing HSI administrative and criminal investigations.


https://www.wkrg.com/state-regional/...n-mississippi/

Mississippi immigration raids net 680 arrests

Deport the ENTIRE family!

No sob stories, no releasing them, send them back!!!

Make the employer cover 100% of the costs.

Mississippi immigration raids net 680 arrests