Therese Apel , The Clarion-Ledger Published 2:54 p.m. CT Feb. 15, 2017 | Updated 5:33 p.m. CT Feb. 15, 2017

A woman reportedly barricaded herself inside her home after agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement took away two of her family members.

Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, told reporters that Daniel and Allen Vargas, both immigrants from Argentina, were taken from their home on Welota Drive early Wednesday morning.

As the day went on and agents remained at the home, Chandler told reporters that Danielle Vargas had locked herself inside the home and was not coming out.

Chandler said to his knowledge all three of the family members were legally in the country in one way or another. He said Danielle is under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which allows certain undocumented immigrants to the United States who entered the country as minors to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation.

MIRA attorney Brenda Chambliss told WAPT's Ross Adams that the ICE agents had told her she could not see the search warrant, but that they were there to search the house, not to take Danielle Vargas away.

ICE Public Affairs Officer Thomas Byrd could not immediately speak to the situation on Welota Drive, but told The Clarion-Ledger by email, "Every day, as part of routine targeted enforcement operations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Fugitive Operations teams arrest criminal aliens and other individuals who are in violation of our nation’s immigration laws. ICE conducts targeted immigration enforcement in compliance with federal law and agency policy. ICE does not conduct sweeps or raids that target aliens indiscriminately.”

This is a developing story.

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/n...raid/97959800/