ICE agents arrest 680 people at 7 Mississippi work sites

published 8 August 2019

In a sweep targeting seven agricultural processing plants in six Mississippi cities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested roughly 680 people on Wednesday.

ICE said the individuals arrested were undocumented immigrants, and this was the largest single-state workplace enforcement action in United States history. During a news conference, ICE Acting Director Matthew Albence said the raids were the result of a year-long criminal investigation.

The agency did not reveal how many people were targeted in the raids or the number of "collateral" arrests — individuals who were swept up in the operation. Officials also didn't say if the employers hiring undocumented immigrants will be charged. In June, President Trump postponed scheduled raids against Central American undocumented immigrants. That operation targeted about 2,000 people, and when the raids were launched in July across several major U.S. cities, they resulted in 35 arrests.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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