Children were left without either parent for 8 days after ICE raid: report

Immigration authorities did not realize for eight days earlier this month that they had detained both parents of two children in Mississippi after a massive workplace raid, family members told ABC News.

Ana, the mother of a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old, and her brother Pedro told ABC News of the ordeal on the condition that only their first names would be used. Ana was released last week while her husband remains in custody.

{mosads}Ana and her husband were among the over 680 people arrested at seven Mississippi poultry processing facilities during an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid over suspicions the employers were hiring undocumented immigrants. They had worked at the Koch Foods plant in Morton, Miss., for seven years.

Pedro said Ana told ICE agents during her arrest that she had children but it was not until eight days later when she told an ICE agent at her detention facility that she and her husband were still detained while their children were at home. 

The ICE officer asked for her children’s names and dates of birth and then released Ana to her family.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

ICE spokesman Bryan Cox told ABC News that everyone who was detained and told authorities they had children at home was given priority processing, adding that if both parents were arrested, ICE made sure one was sent home within 24 hours. 

Cox added to ABC that he was aware of one case involving a couple in which they were both detained for eight days, though he said the mother initially made no claim of any children and was released soon after ultimately doing so. 

“Every person who was processed that day was asked explicitly, ‘Do you have any children at home?’” said Cox. 

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan defended the tactic this month, saying it’s one part of a broader immigration strategy. 

“We’ve got to start with our partners in Central America and Mexico. We’ve got to secure the border,” he told NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “But we also have to have interior enforcement to stop this incentive, this work opportunity, that we have in the U.S. that employers are exploiting. And we’ve seen that in this case.”