ICE Raids Leave Kids All Alone In Mississippi Streets, America Very Great

Abolish ICE.

While Donald Trump was on his way to visit victims of the mass shooting in El Paso yesterday -- an attack by a killer who shares Trump's belief that America is being "invaded" by undocumented immigrants -- another part of Trump's deport-everyone agenda was rolling into action. In Mississippi, ICE agents raided multiple food processing plants, arresting nearly 700 people suspected of being in the country illegally. All over the state, workers were made to line up, and those suspected of being undocumented were rounded up, put on buses, and taken away. Oh, yes, and if their children were at school, tough luck -- a reporter for Jackson station WJTV tweeted that in Forrest, Mississippi, confused, crying children were simply "left alone in the streets." That's how we treat US citizens born to the invaders who take Americans' precious chicken-slaughtering jobs.

HAPPENING NOW: In Forrest, Mississippi where one of the #ICE raids happened nearby Children of those who were arres… https://t.co/5HFO33VIJm

— Alex Love (@Alex Love) 1565225062.0 

But don't worry, several good Christians in the replies were quite certain that's entirely proper, since their parents BROKE THE LAW, and the children should be deported right along with their criminal parents.

Kind of makes you wonder why that shooter in Texas could possibly have seen Latinos as less than human.

Children whose parents were taken away in Forrest, and who didn't have any relatives or guardians immediately available, were given food and shelter overnight at a local gym after owner Jordan Barnes arranged with community leaders and volunteers to bring the kids there. Some of the kids were just toddlers.

Children of Undocumented Immigrants arrested rely on strangers for shelter    www.youtube.com 

One little girl, 11-year-old Magdalena Gomez Gregorio, sobbed as she pleaded with the government to have a heart. "I need my dad and mommy [...] My dad didn't do anything, he's not a criminal." Trump immigration kapo Stephen Miller was unavailable to tell her her daddy is too a criminal, and a threat to Our Way Of Life.

Christina Peralta, the godmother of two boys whose mother was taken away by ICE, said the boys aren't sure when they'll see her again.

The children that I'm with, their mom's been here for 15 years and she has no record, no nothing. A lot of people here have no record, they've been here for 12 years, 10 years, 15 years [...]

He said his mom is gone, that he's upset with Trump, he said he just wants his mom back. And they're both crying, they've been crying all day long since they got home from school.

Well of course! That's precisely the kind of fear Miller and Trump want to whip up, for the good of America, or at least the good of Trump supporters.

The Washington Post   reports that across Mississippi, "Many children didn't have a loved one or family friend to go home to.  Some walked home from school but were locked out because their parents were detained in the raid."

But don't worry! An ICE spokesperson, Bryan Cox, told the Post that this all went very smoothly, probably, and that there's nothing to worry about at all, because those who were arrested

were asked "if they had any children who were at school or child care and needed to be picked up." He said cellphones were also made available to detainees so they could make arrangements for child care. Cox  also said schools were contacted as the raids began so they were aware there could be child care issues and knew whom to contact if parents didn't pick up their kids.

Any detainee who indicates he or she has dependents "and is not being criminally arrested or is subject to mandatory detention, will be expeditiously processed," Cox said.

WaPo posted video of Elizabeth Iraheta, who witnessed the raid at a Koch Foods processing plant in Morton, Mississippi. ICE took away a woman who rents a room from her, and Iraheta was worried about what's going to happen to the woman's 12-year-old daughter, Angie.

"The girl is devastated for her mom," Iraheta, 49, said. "We still don't know if she will be released. The girl is in bad shape, very sad. We're waiting for her mom."

Fortunately, a very nice ICE agent explained to another woman in the group that everything would be fine, so they could stop worrying, OK?

"Here's the deal, all right," an agent says to an English-speaking woman accompanying Angie. "She just went. Her mom got on the bus. We took her mom's documents, all right. She's going to be processed, because she doesn't have papers to be here legally."

But "because she's the only caretaker of the child," the agent continues, "she'll be released this afternoon. So with [Angie] being a U.S. citizen and being 12 years old … she's going to be issued a notice to appear, she'll have to see an immigration judge, she'll be released this afternoon."

Dear readers, we hope you are all prepared for the shock of your lives. The Post reports that, as of last night, "Angie's mother had not been released."

What an unexpected development from an immigration apparatus which routinely lied to immigrants and children during last year's family separation blitz. Little things like telling parents their kids were getting bathed, when the kids were being taken away for months, or lying to detained kids about reuniting them with their parents in a day or so. Not to mention everyone involved lying to Congress about it. Ms. Iraheta should consider herself lucky she wasn't told to let herself get deported in hopes of getting Angie's mother released.

[ Clarion Ledger / WJTV / WaPo ]

Yr Wonkette is supported 100 percent by reader donations. Please send money to keep the servers humming, the writers paid, and Dok screaming endlessly.