ICE Raid Arrest Numbers Rise

ICE raids—federal officials who bust into rural factory towns to arrest suspected “illegal immigrants”—continued this week in Laurel, Miss. The town about 18,000 saw federal officials revise the number of people arrested in the raid to 595. It remained unknown whether the majority of detainees would serve jail time or be immediately deported.

The New York Times:

Federal officials on Tuesday revised upward to 595 the number of suspected illegal immigrants arrested this week in a raid on a Laurel, Miss., factory, making it the largest immigration crackdown on a United States workplace in recent years.

On Monday, the day of the raid, officials said at least 350 people had been arrested.

Officials said 475 of the immigrants were immediately taken by bus to a detention center in the central Louisiana town of Jena and would face deportation. At least eight appeared in federal court in Hattiesburg, Miss., on Tuesday, where they faced criminal charges of aggravated identity theft, which usually means stealing a Social Security number or using a false address.

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nytimes.com

ICE agents arrest immigrant workers in Laurel, Miss., on Monday, ostensibly for using false documents to obtain work.