WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS: Agents Detain 350 Illegal Workers at Plant

Agents Detain 350 Illegal Workers at Plant

By Julie Straw
julie@wlbt.net

Howard Industries is one of the world's largest manufacturers of electronic transformers and transportation equipment. Early Monday morning, the Laurel facility was swarming with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. After hours of interviewing all the employees on site, 350 illegal immigrants were identified.

"They will have the opportunity to provide the facts of their case before an immigration judge," said ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez. "If a judge determines that they are ineligible to remain in the country and orders them deported, then certainly we will carry out those orders of removal."

In 2002 Howard Industries received a $31 million incentive package from the state to expand and create more jobs. On Monday the switchboard for the company was closed, and phone messages were not immediately returned.

Meanwhile, phones at the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA) offices have been ringing off the hook with employees and their families scared for the future. 

"We have a very serious situation with families being split and real terror being inflicted on the families and the children in Laurel," said MIRA executive director Bill Chandler. MIRA has sent lawyers to Laurel and Hattiesburg to represent the workers.

"Every person who is being encountered is being interviewed to assess and determine if there are any humanitarian concerns, whether there are any caregiver issues, whether there are any medical issues," said Gonzalez. "Certainly we will take appropriate action."

After assessing humanitarian concerns for each person, ICE agents found 50 of the workers will have an alternative to detention. 

MIRA officials still call this a major humanitarian crisis.

"This raid inherently ignores the needs of people," said Chandler. "Because the people that are arrested are being arrested because they work, and I think that's a real contradiction to our values."

The workers will appear in federal court in Hattiesburg. 

Officials with ICE say people whose relatives were detained can call 1-866-341-3858 for information.