I witnessed the tears in his eyes as he walked out of the gates. Workers here at Peco's in Canton are being escorted inside buses in an immigration raid. Some local reporters got video of the raids: The AP "witnessed dozens of agents ready to process the workers…with seven lines, one for each location." Those apprehended are being processed at a military facility in Flowood. Īcting Director of ICE Matthew Albence bragged to the AP that this was biggest workplace sting operation conducted in more than a decade and likely the largest ever conducted in one state. This is being done in our name-and it's on all of us to end it. These children will go to sleep tonight with no idea when, or if, they'll see their parents again. One 11-year-old girl cried: "Government, please show some heart. Donated food & drinks are being provided." Later, from the gym, Love reported that many of the kids there-some of them only toddlers-were "left scared & crying after coming home from school & being locked out without their parents. "Strangers and neighbors are taking them to a local gym to be put up for the night." In Forrest, Mississippi, the "children of those who were arrested are left alone in the streets crying for help," tweeted WJTV 12 News staffer Alex Love.
It is not publicly known how many children are being impacted by the arrests." "Reports from the scene of the raids mentioned children waving goodbye to their parents as the adults were taken into custody. In Scott County alone, at least six families with school-age children had parents taken in yesterday's ICE raids, says the paper. The towns hit include Bay Springs, Carthage, Canton, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastapol," the Clarion Ledger reports. "The raids happened in small towns near Jackson with a workforce made up largely of Latino immigrants. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted the raids at seven food processing plants around the state Wednesday.
An immigration enforcement operation in Mississippi has led to 680 people being detained.