Group raises $30,000 to help detainees' families
The Associated Press

LAUREL, Miss. -- Almost $30,000 has been raised by a Jackson-based organization to help families of hundreds of immigrants taken into custody when authorities raided Howard Industries in Laurel last month.

The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance says the raids took away the main money earners for dozens of families.

Immigration agents rounded up close to 600 suspected illegal immigrants in the August 25 raid at Howard Industries Incorporated. Officials say the detainees are being processed for deportation. However, MIRA director Bill Chandler said just before an association meeting in Jackson on Wednesday that some of the detainees may not even be illegal, but could be in the process of getting their citizenship.
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