U.S. immigration agents arrest 680 workers at Mississippi plants

U.S. immigration authorities arrested nearly 700 people at seven agricultural processing plants across Mississippi on Wednesday. federal officials said that arrest could be the largest worksite enforcement operation in a single state. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement they detained about 680 people who were working illegally at the plants. They said they also seized business records as part of a federal criminal investigation.

Some of those detained will be released for "humanitarian reasons" and required to appear in U.S. immigration court. Others will be transported to an ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana, the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of Mississippi said in a statement. ICE did not specify the nationalities of the workers arrested. ICE prioritized the arrests of recent border crossers, people who had previously been ordered deported and those seen as a threat to public safety.