ICE Raids 2019: Hundreds Of Undocumented People Apprehended In Mississippi

ICE executed

what is believed to be the largest single-state

raid in the history of the United States. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, apprehended six hundred and eighty undocumented immigrants while they were working in seven different poultry processing facilities.

"Today there were raids at several chicken processing plants in Morton. Very close there, in Canton, they took about 60 of the 680 arrested by federal agents. Now there is a lot of fear,

” says

Luis Espinoza

, of the Mississippi Alliance for Immigrant Rights (MIRA) to Univision. "The

area of the raids has a diameter of about 60 miles around. They are small cities where poultry plants

are located. Most of the workers are from Central America and Mexico."

The Trump administration had warned that the target would be undocumented immigrants with a criminal record, but immigrant protection organizations say the detainees are workers who have been in the country for many years and have US citizen children.

The U.S. immigration authorities relied on criminal and administrative warrants, according to Acting ICE Director Matthew

Albence in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. "While

we are a nation of immigrants, more than that, we are

first and foremost a nation of laws," he told reporters.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi Mike Hurst confirmed, this is to date, "the largest single state immigration enforcement operation in our nation's history."

LARGEST Single-State Worksite Enforcement Action in Nation’s History Conducted TODAY by @ICEgov & @TheJusticeDept at Various Sites Across #Mississippi
Approx. 680 Aliens Detained Pursuant to Federal Warrants
Thank you ICE Acting Director Matt Albence, @DHSgov, @SDMSNews & others pic.twitter.com/45T7mvMRvK

— U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst (@USAttyHurst) August 7, 2019

Supposedly the workers

were already alerted that there would soon be a raid. "People had received a letter a few weeks ago from the company telling them that Social Security numbers did not match the records, and they were asking for documents to clarify the problem or else they could not continue working," said Espinoza.

A few months ago, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had sent over 500,000 letters to employers and businesses, telling them about workers whose social security numbers did not match their identities. “We don't know how many of the 680 workers had false documents or other identities. But we know that in these facilities everyone must have papers to work,” said Espinoza.

"For a lot of the cities where these raids occurred, it was the first day of school. We know from past immigration enforcement actions of this type, that there

are going to be children who go home tonight and their parents will

be gone,"

Solórzano told CBS News. "It'

s extremely disruptive to families. It's —

in many cases — depriving the family of the primary breadwinner."

After the raid, organizations that defend the rights of immigrants called for action by Congress to act and limit the raids warned by the president. “Immigrant communities are still recovering from the deadly attack in El Paso. Today, the Trump administration fueled the fear and anxiety we live with every day with a massive incursion into the workplace that resulted in the arrest of 680 people. It is cruel and does not live up to the America we believe in, one where our policies

are rooted in dignity and respect,” said members of the Fair Migration Reform Movement (FIRM).