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Washington Times
November 7, 2019

No harm? Most illegals in Mississippi ICE raids stole Americans’ identities

Most of the 680 illegal immigrants nabbed in August’s immigration raids at poultry plants in Mississippi worked under stolen American identities, the Department of Homeland Security’s top investigator told Congress Thursday, rebuffing Democrats who insisted the “undocumented” workers were doing no harm.

“They stole the IDs of 400 U.S. citizens,” said Jere Miles, who leads Homeland Security Investigations’ New Orleans office. “Where’s their voice?”

Mr. Miles was defending the Aug. 7 operations against seven processing plants as both a success and a deterrent to future illegal immigrants, battling with Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee who called a field hearing in Mississippi to criticize the raids.

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The raids have become a major flashpoint in the immigration debate, with activists complaining that they were conducted cruelly, on the first day of school for the workers’ children, and without warning to local authorities or social welfare agencies.

That left children waiting after class to be picked up by parents who would never show, because they ended up in detention. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did immediately release 303 of the 680 for humanitarian reasons such as young children at home, but some migrants are still in detention and critics said children are still separated.

More galling, according to the Democrats who convened the hearing, is that none of the managers at the poultry processing businesses has been charged.

“You picked on the undocumented persons, to the exclusion of the employers,” said Rep. Al Green, Texas Democrat.

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and chairman of the committee, said he’s working to make sure the illegal immigrants get paid for the work they did — as illegal as it may have been.

He said he has heard tales of employers who wait to see their workers arrested and then pocket the wages they had promised to pay.

“They should have received a paycheck,” Mr. Thompson said. “We’ve been working with various agencies to make sure that happens.”

Here.