Families Affected By Mississippi ICE Raids Scramble To Find Support

The Mississippi ICE raids swept up nearly 700 undocumented workers from several food processing plants last week.

News Story (Mississippi)

Debbie Elliott
WAMU (DC)
August 13, 2019
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Tags: ICE Raids

Organizations mentioned/involved: Mississippi Center for Justice (MCJ)


DETAILS

Evelyn says it took them days to find out her dad is being held in a detention center in Natchez, Miss., only three hours away from Carthage.

Her family has also come to the church to seek answers from lawyers, who have organized across several towns hit by the ICE raids, setting up makeshift legal clinics.

Attorney Amelia McGowan with the Mississippi Center for Justice says that in general, there are few immigration lawyers practicing in Mississippi who will work for free. But after news hit about the ICE raids, several hundred lawyers around the country signed up to help the state’s devastated families.

“Many of these cases are going to be very long,” she says. “They might take years to finish. And so we want to make sure that we have a sustainable network in place to really support people through the entire process.”