Federal agents swept through seven poultry processing plants in Mississippi Wednesday, arresting 680 people in one of the largest immigration raids in U.S. history. Video handed out to reporters by Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows agents entering factories, leading people out in plastic handcuffs, frisking them and loading them onto buses. They were taken to a massive Mississippi National Guard hangar for processing. Outside the base, dozens of family members and supporters gathered, chanting “Let them go!” The mass arrests came on the first day of the school year and left scores of children traumatized and crying for their parents. Some children walked home from classes, only to find their doors locked and their family members missing. This is 11-year-old Magdalena Gomez Gregorio speaking with Mississippi CBS affiliate WJTV.
Magdalena Gomez Gregorio: “Government, please show some heart. Let my parent be free and with everybody else. Please, don’t leave the childs with cryness and everything. … I need my dad and mommy. My dad didn’t do nothing. He’s not a criminal.”