Immigration officials conducted multiple large-scale raids at food processing plants across Mississippi on Wednesday (August 7). U.S. immigration agents took approximately 680 people into custody, making it one of the largest single-state immigration enforcement operations in history.
The arrests were the culmination of a year-long investigation into seven different plants throughout the state. Over 600 agents took part in the operation, which was done in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.
"In what is believed to be the largest single-state immigration enforcement operation in our nation's history, today at seven sites," said Mike Hurst, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. "ICE [Homeland Security Investigation] special agents executed administrative and criminal search warrants resulting in the detention of approximately 680 illegal aliens."
At a Koch Foods Inc. plant in Morton, which sits about 40 miles east of Jackson, agents filled three buses, two for men and one for women, with workers who were suspected of being in the country illegally.
According to WREG, the workers were taken to a hangar at an Air National Guard base where they were processed for immigration violations.
"The execution of federal search warrants today was simply about enforcing the rule of law in our state and throughout our great country," Hurst said. "We are a nation of laws, and we will remain so by continuing to enforce our laws and ensuring that justice is done."
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