CUFFED

ICE Makes 680 Arrests at Mississippi Food-Processing Plants

ICE Acting Director Matthew Albence says this may be the largest workplace ICE sting in over a decade.

Raids by U.S. immigration officials on multiple Mississippi food-processing plants led to 680 arrests. Matthew Albence, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said this may be the largest workplace ICE sting in over a decade. Six-hundred agents were involved in the raids on the plants, and surrounded the grounds to prevent people from running. The raids took place in small towns where Latino immigrants composed a majority of the workforce. The 680 people were taken by bus to a military hangar to be processed, after their wrists were tied with plastic bounds and their possessions were placed in clear plastic bags. Authorities checked employee IDs and freed people with legal status. The resident agent in charge of ICE operations in Jackson, Mississippi, told the AP, “I’ve never done anything like this.”