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300 Migrants Released on Humanitarian Grounds After Mississippi Raids

Aline Barros

   Hundreds of immigrant workers detained in Mississippi were released
   Thursday, a day after federal agents arrested 680 undocumented migrants
   in raids on food-processing plants,the largest such operation in the
   United States in 10 years.

   At a news conference, officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs
   Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorney's
   Office for the Southern District of Mississippi said more than 300
   people,including pregnant women and juveniles, had been released on
   humanitarian grounds.

   Those released on their own recognizance were served with noticesand at
   some point will have to appear beforeimmigration judges.Others were
   transported to detention facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi.

   Nearly all of the 680 migrants picked up were from Latin America.

   According to officials, the operation, which had been in the planning
   stage for about a year, was executed when a judge agreed that law
   enforcement officers had "sufficient probable cause" to get search
   warrants and execute them.

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