680 undocumented immigrants are arrested in Mississippi

[jpak]

Source: CNN

(CNN)US immigration authorities have detained some 680 undocumented immigrants in what a federal prosecutor described as "what is believed to be the largest single state immigration enforcement operation in our nation's history."

US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi Mike Hurst told reporters the arrests took place at seven sites in six different cities in Mississippi on Wednesday. "Today, as a result of the hard work of these men and women in law enforcement, we've set another record," Hurst said.

Officials declined to provide details about what sites had been targeted, citing what they said was an ongoing criminal investigation. CNN affiliates reported the raids occurred at food-processing plants throughout the state.

The arrests came as a result of administrative and criminal search warrants executed by special agents from Homeland Security Investigations, Hurst said.

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Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/07/us/mississippi-immigration-raids/index.html

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Were their employers arrested as well?

[olddad65]

1. Just another day in Amerussia.

[pecosbob]

2. Again...why are you raiding small companies and not Tyson Foods?

Tyson screws American workers every day it operates. It screws foreign undocumented workers every day it operates. It screws America every day it operates, and Tyson is only egregious example.

Dems need to get serious about this when they are again capable of passing legislation. These are corporate criminals and need to be held responsible. Board members need to start going to jail. I expect Warren has something up her sleeve for these guys.

[Cicada]

4. Koch Foods is a big company

Not related to the oil and gas Koch’s.The owner is worth 2.9 billion.

[pecosbob]

5. I guess my rant is at what point when a pattern of violations has been repeatedly observed

do we consider the violations to be systemic and treated accordingly?

[House of Roberts]

3. That averages almost a hundred per plant.

Those illegal employers will have to hire locals with no experience and train them.

Expect to see large numbers of workplace injuries as the bosses try to wring productivity out of the under trained new hires.

[catrose]

7. If any locals want to work there, especially at the same wage as the undocumented

[LuckyLib]

12. Yup. They need to go rustle up some young Mississippi folks

still living at home, unemployed, after high school. Let’s see how that goes.

[Igel]

6. Dealing with employers usually requires looking at the paperwork ...

Seized during raids. It's a two-fer. Illegal workers + paperwork. Then they go back or, usually, just file chargers.

As I've said numerous times before, filing charges against employers is a bit harder. It requires that they know that the workers are not in the country legally. That can mean that they know they (a) have insufficient procedures for checking documents or (b) have checked and are ignoring the fact that documents are fake. It may even be the case that they don't have documents on file for workers.

But simply employing an undocumented worker by itself typically doesn't get the prosecutor very far. "I was the victim of fraud" is a sufficient defense. Or, worse, the manager says, "My HR person responsible for keeping the files screwed up." Then it's back to whether the procedures were sufficient and reasonable, and that's still possible if the employees screwed up in an ingenious way or simply decided to commit fraud themselves.

Require e-Verify. Standardize work authorization documents. Have some other way of checking worker eligibility. Until then, "I was the victim of fraud" is a reasoned out, and removing it is an unreasonable, very knee-jerk, solution.

[atreides1]

8. Here's what probably happened

1. The workers were getting wise to the fact that their employers were ripping them off...and wanted what was owed to them

2. The employers not wanting to give up the money, had their lawyers contact Immigration and worked out a deal

3. Immigration swoops in arrests 680 undocumented immigrants...then crows about what great job the corrupt little brown shirts, did!

4. Employers pay a small fine and then wait a few months before they hire the next group of undocumented immigrants.

[Mersky]

9. This is unacceptable.

When did the pResident green light this? Did he say, yes, go ahead with the "months" long plan today? Yesterday? Since this weekend? Any answers are obscene.

This is unacceptable.

[FBaggins]

10. One of the employers just settled an EEOC discrimination lawsuit last year

Almost $4million

https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/8-1-18b.cfm

[NCjack]

11. "Trickle Down" the raids. Start with the big companies and the super-rich. nt

[yaesu]

13. How about rounding up illegal employers instead. nt

[ripcord]

16. And what do you think that will do to hiring of immigrants

I don't understand this attitude, it will be a minor inconvenience for the employers but if this ever starts large scale people without documentation won't be hired at all. It is like some people here don't want immigrants to work.

[Historic NY]

14. Watch the price of chicken rise, its already up there.

[Blue_Tires]

15. Greenwald and Snowden were unavailable for comment...

Between ICE, the mass shootings and the environment, it has not been a good week for the "Anybody is better than Hillary!" -left

Not that they'd ever step up and admit their culpability...