ICE Arrested Nearly 700 People — And Left Kids Stranded At School

On Wednesday, August 8, kids headed to class in Mississippi for their starting week back to school. Yet some of those kids had no ability to go home: That same day, U.S. Immigration officials arrested nearly 700 people, some of whom are parents, while in a massive raid on seven food processing flowers, according to the Mississippi Clarion Ledger.


Search warrants were executed in small towns near Jackson, Missouri, with a workforce largely made up of Latinx immigrants in what was the biggest worksite enforcement action in more than a decade, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Matthew Albence told the Associated Press.


It’s not publicly known exactly how several children were affected by the arrests, nevertheless Scott County Superintendent Tony McGee told the Mississippi Clarion Ledger that at least six families, with children from kindergarten to high school, had parents caught up in the raid. School bus drivers in the county were instructed to have a “visual reference to a parent or guardian” before dropping a student off, and if no parents were house, the student would have to be taken back to the school.


“We're going to be here at the school up until we ensure that every child is residence safe or has a safe place to go,” McGee told the Mississippi Clarion Ledger. “We're going to create ensure our kids are taken care of first.”


Alex Love, a reporter for WJTV, announced that several of the kids are being put up in a local health and fitness center by neighbors and strangers. “Many are left scared & crying immediately after coming residence from school & being locked out without their parents,” Love tweeted.


On Thursday morning, all the kids had been returned to “their original homes, if not short-term ones with distant relatives till this gets totally ordered out,” Love reported. South Bend Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg tweeted that “neighbors are helping children as if there had been an organic disaster” in the aftermath of the raids. “But this is a policy disaster.”


Christina Peralta is one of the people taking care of her relatives: her two godchildren, whose mother was arrested. She told WJTV that the gentlemen are worried they’ll never visualize their mom again.


“He mentioned his mom is gone, that he’s angry with Trump, he mentioned he just wants his mom back,” Peralta mentioned of one of her godsons. “And they’ve been crying for the entire day since they got residence from school.”


As for school, well, McGee told the Mississippi Clarion Ledger that they’re only going concentrate on “supporting families” for the coming days.


“We'll worry about the school piece of it immediately after we get all this categorized out. You can't expect a child to stay focused on the schoolwork once he's attempting give attention to where Mom and Dad are,” McGee mentioned. “We all know there really is a bigger picture in all this. We're not here to navigate those waters, we're here attempt to help families get with each other as best they can.”


ICE did not immediately return a request for comment from MTV News, however Bryan Cox, a ICE spokesperson, told the Mississippi Clarion Ledger that, as of 3:30 p.M. On Wednesday, people were still being screened and processed, that he did not know how several of the people detained in the raid had children at residence, and that not each person currently being processed could be detained.


“You are going to have persons released,” Cox instructed them news outlet. “ICE makes custody determination on a case-by-case basis based on the totality of their circumstances.”


Yet that shows, at least for the time being, these kids are left alone. Kids like 11-year-old Magdalena Gomez Gregorio, who told WJTV that she just wanted to be able to see her parents.


“I need my dad and mommy,” Magdalena mentioned. “My dad didn’t do anything, he’s not a criminal.”