News reports continue to unfold surrounding the ICE raids of seven agricultural processing plants across Mississippi involving more than 600 ICE agents. These atrocious ICE raids have devastating consequences for immigrants and their families across the country, not to mention our entire country.
The workers at these agricultural processing plants were doing their job one minute—and in the next minute, their entire lives were upended. Raids like these result in significant trauma for the workers and the family members who are directly impacted. They also ostensibly send a message to these companies and those in power that they can treat workers, especially the most vulnerable among us, any way they want.
Furthermore, these raids exacerbate the feeling that our Latinx and immigrant communities are under continued attack. Our community is still reeling from the massacre in El Paso—and yet again, we are scapegoated, made the subject of hate speech and hate crimes, imprisoned in camps, deprived of necessities like food and water and denied dignified treatment.
In every way possible, these workers and community members are being told: you are not wanted here, you are not safe here, your children have no security here.
The raids in Mississippi illustrate what we at Justice for Migrant Women know to be true—that the targeting and mistreating immigrants, many of whom are Latinx, is not just happening on the border. Last year, over 100 children in Ohio started their summer break reeling from immigration raids. This year, children in Alabama and Mississippi are starting their school year begging for their parents to be returned to them.
Feature image of a vigil for those who died in migrant detention centers via Charles Edward Miller and Creative Commons.
