Jimmie E. Gates, Mississippi Clarion Ledger Published 11:36 a.m. CT Aug. 8, 2019 | Updated 2:54 p.m. CT Aug. 8, 2019
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Some Mississippi politicians, including Gov. Phil Bryant, praised Wednesday’s federal ICE immigration raids at seven Mississippi businesses in which nearly 700 people were detained.
Others criticized it, or questioned the efficacy of such raids and the well-being of the children of involved migrants.
Bryant tweeted that state Southern District U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst “is doing exactly what he should be doing.”
But Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the raids will not make communities safer and, “They criminalize our neighbors & decrease community trust for law enforcement.”
Hurst, a President Trump appointee, has been a vocal supporter of more stringent enforcement of immigration laws in Mississippi, as has Bryant.
“If you are here illegally violating federal laws, you have to bear the responsibility of that federal violation,” Bryant said.
Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood said Wednesday that he is concerned about the children of the detainees, and questioned whether Bryant or other politicians use immigration as a partisan wedge issue.
“The governor doesn’t have a lot to do with immigration issues,” Hood said. “Some people run on it like they’re going to do something, but that’s nothing but just partisan politics. That’s just throwing gas on people. And I don’t do that. As a prosecutor all these years, they need to follow the law, but there’s a human element, too, especially dealing with kids.”
However, others shared Bryant’s views including Republicans Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and U.S Rep. Steven Palazzo. Hood and Reeves are running for governor this year.
“Glad to see that ICE is working hard to enforce our immigration laws,” Reeves said in a Wednesday tweet,” 680 aliens detained in Mississippi today. We must enforce our laws, for the safety of all Americans.”
The Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus said it finds the raids to have been reckless and insensitive.
In a statement, Caucus Chairwoman Sen. Angela Turner-Ford, D-West Point, said children, some of whom were starting their first day of school, were displaced for hours leaving educators, local communities and even school bus drivers scrambling.
“At a minimum, the raids should have been conducted with the inclusion of the Mississippi Department of Human Services and Child Protective Services, who could have been on hand to assist with the monitoring and handling of the children affected, she said.
Turner-Ford said the caucus is thankful that school officials and good Samaritans stepped in to help locate displaced children and coordinate other recovery efforts. She said the impact of the raids could be far reaching.
“We ask the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide immediate assistance with placement and to contact and work with DHS and CPS,” said Turner-Ford.
MISSISSIPPI ICE RAIDS: ‘We’ve been up all night.’ Child Protection Services can’t locate detainees’ children
State Rep. Tom Miles, D-Forest, whose district includes several of the plants where the raids took place, said there has been a great outpouring from the business community and churches to ensure that impacted children on the first day of school didn’t return to empty homes.
“Our concern was that those babies were taken care of,” Miles said.
Cong. Bennie Thompson said by all measures, the massive ICE raid was a show of force that will have an enormous, long-term impact on communities in Mississippi.
“ICE seems to have deliberately ignored its own guidelines on minimizing the impact on children and vulnerable populations when it planned this raid,” Thompson said.
Thompson said it’s another form of family separation – and an unfortunate common thread in this Administration’s immigration policies.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s leadership has a responsibility to understand the consequences of its actions, and I seriously question why they continue to target migrant families in this way,” Thompson said in a statement.
Before becoming U.S. attorney, Hurst was director of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a division of the conservative Mississippi Center for Public Policy and ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general in 2015. He served as assistant U.S. attorney in Jackson from 2006 to 2015, working in the criminal division and prosecuting some high profile public corruption cases, including the initial work on the case against former state Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps.
Prior to that, Hurst was legislative director and counsel to then U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering and counsel to the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. He is a graduate of Millsaps College and George Washington University Law School.
https://www.clarionledger.com/contentpackage/1950420001
Contact Jimmie Gates at 601-961-7212 or jgates@gannett.com. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.
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