Immigration Raids Will Have Long-Term Effects on Poultry Towns
Not many local people will pluck chickens 8 hours a day.
Immigration Raids Will Have Long-Term Effects on Poultry Towns
https://www.courthousenews.com/immigration-raids-will-have-long-term-effects-on-poultry-towns/
August 9, 2019 ASSOCIATED PRESS
MORTON, Miss. (AP)...........................................
A store owner who caters to Latino poultry plant workers fears he will have to close. A school superintendent is trying to rebuild trust with the Spanish-speaking community. The CEO of a local bank says the effects are likely to touch every business in her town.
More than 100 civil rights activists, union organizers and clergy members in Mississippi denounced the raid, but the state’s Republican Gov. Phil Bryant commended federal immigration authorities for the arrests, tweeting that anyone in the country illegally has to “bear the responsibility of that federal violation.”
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“All the workers, the people that have been taken, they’re not going to be able to spend money,” Garcia said. “They’re not going to be able to work in the plant.”
Garcia said many workers at the two raided poultry plants — Koch Foods and PH Foods — have bought houses. He questions whether they will be able to keep up their mortgage payments. ..........................................
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Martha Rogers, the chairman and CEO of the Bank of Morton, also expressed concern for the local economy. Rogers said many Spanish-speaking residents have become customers of the bank.
“Every business in town will be affected,” said Rogers, whose family has owned a controlling interest in the small bank since the 1950s.
Scott County Schools Superintendent Tony McGee said more than 150 students were absent Thursday from the 4,100-student district, including a number of students in Morton, where the enrollment is about 30% Latino.
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A federal agent stands by a trailer loaded with chickens after immigration raids on Mississippi food processing plants Wednesday that led to hundreds of arrests. (AP photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
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