The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agency executed multiple federal criminal search warrants at seven agricultural processing plants in Mississippi on August 7, which resulted in the detainment of 680 alleged illegal immigrant workers.
The raids were the largest workplace sting by federal immigration authorities in at least a decade.
Included in that 680 people were three busloads of workers from the Koch Foods poultry plant in Morton, according to an Associated Press report.
Raids also took place at the Peco Foods poultry plants in Canton, Bay Springs and Sebastopol; poultry processor Pearl River Foods Inc. in Carthage; grocery distributor MP Foods Inc. in Pelahatchie; and shipping company PH Food Inc. in Morton. It has not been determined how many, if any, people were detained at those facilities.
All the unlawfully present foreign nationals arrested, according to a press release from ICE, are being interviewed by the agency’s staff to record any potential mitigating humanitarian situations. Based on these interviews, and consideration of their criminality and prior immigration history, ICE is determining on a case-by-case basis based on the totality of the circumstances which individuals will be detained and which persons may be released from custody at present.
Matthew Albence, ICE’s acting director, said raids are “racially neutral” and based on evidence of illegal residency.
All the illegal immigrants encountered as part of this operation are either being placed into removal proceedings before the federal immigration courts, and for those who already received due process and have been ordered removed, processed for removal from the U.S.
Business records seized
According to reports, the companies' business records were seized as part of a criminal investigation.
"The companies involved could be charged with knowingly hiring workers who are in the county illegally and will be scrutinized for tax, document and wage fraud," Albence said.
“We are fully cooperating with the authorities in their investigation and are navigating a potential disruption of operations,” Peco said in a statement, adding that it participates in E-Verify, a government program to screen new hires for immigration status.
“The chicken industry uses every tool in the tool box to ensure a legal workforce,” said Tom Super, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, said.
This HSI-led operation was conducted in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, of which U.S. Attorney D. Michael Hurst Jr. will prosecute any resulting federal criminal charges.
Koch Foods, according to the WATTAgNet Top Poultry Companies Database, is the fifth largest poultry company in the United States, while Peco Foods is the eighth largest in the country. Koch Foods has 13,000 employees and operations in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee. Peco Foods employs 6,119 and operates in Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. Mississippi is the fifth-largest chicken-producing state in the U.S.