ICE continues its raids. Now it is Mississipi.
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Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald
Posted on Mon, Aug. 25, 2008
ICE raids Miss. plant
seeking illegal workers
By HOLBROOK MOHR
Federal immigration agents arrested some 350 suspected undocumented
workers in a raid on a Mississippi electrical equipment plant Monday,
authorities announced, hours after sealing all entrances amid reports their
sweep had idled normal operations.
Barbara Gonzalez, a U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, confirmed the arrests in the raid that she said
targeted Howard Industries Inc. of Laurel. Authorities said more people could be
arrested.
The company produces dozens of products ranging from
electrical transformers to medical supplies, according to the company's Web
site.
"This is a targeted enforcement operation that is part of an
ongoing ICE investigation that has revealed that illegal aliens are employed at
Howard Industries," Gonzalez said, adding late Monday that agents were still
interviewing plant workers.
She declined to say how many federal agents
were involved in the raid, but said they acted on a tip provided by a union
worker.
Another agency spokesman, Brandon Montgomery, told The
Associated Press outside the plant Monday afternoon that agents were talking
with everyone who worked at the sprawling plant to determine their residency
status.
He said that 50 of those suspected of being illegal workers were
eligible for some form of "alternative to detention" - a concession that could
allow them to be placed on a monitoring device while awaiting a caseworker for
"humanitarian reasons" such as children in their care.
All plant
entrances were blocked, with tents set up at some ICE checkpoints to keep agents
out of a steady rain. Motorists traveling on roads behind the plant were stopped
by officers in unmarked vehicles and told to leave.
People leaving the
plant told The Hattiesburg American newspaper that so many illegal immigrants
were arrested that operations were shut down. It wasn't clear how many workers
the plant employed.
A recording at Howard Industries plant on Monday
said the telephone switchboard was closed.
Billy Howard, the company's
chief executive officer, did not immediately respond to a message left by The
AP. A man who answered a phone call at the company's security station said
reporters would have to call back Tuesday.
Howard Industries was founded
in the 1960s. In 2002, state lawmakers approved a $31.5 million, taxpayer-backed
incentive plan aimed at helping to expand its operations.
The raid is
one of several nationwide in recent years.
On May 12, federal
immigration officials swept into Agriprocessors, the nation's largest kosher
meatpacking plant, in Iowa. Nearly 400 workers were detained and dozens of
fraudulent permanent resident alien cards were seized from the plant's human
resources department, court records showed.
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