Women's Refugee Commission Condemns Raids on Immigrant Workers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, the Trump administration executed one of the largest single-state workplace enforcement actions in U.S. history when it raided multiple workplaces in Mississippi, detaining more than 680 immigrant workers. The raid follows a series of anti-immigrant regulatory and policy actions by the Trump administration to limit access to asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico and massively expand expedited removal, allowing the government to detain and rapidly deport a larger population of undocumented immigrants without a court hearing.

In response to this week’s raids, Ursela Ojeda, policy advisor for the Women’s Refugee Commission’s Migrant Rights and Justice program, issued the following statement:

“Raids like this are designed to terrorize communities. They put vulnerable women and children at risk. Migrant women and children who may be victims of crime or abuse may be afraid to go to the authorities. Children will be afraid to go to school as they fear — as happened in Mississippi — that their mothers or fathers will be taken away while they are at school. This is a calculated and coordinated effort by President Trump to try to criminalize and terrorize immigrant communities to the detriment of us all.

“The Women's Refugee Commission condemns these raids, which were reportedly long planned and conducted on the first day of school in Mississippi, leaving hundreds of children — in violation of ICE’s own humanitarian guidelines — abandoned and alone at the end of the school day. DHS’s actions were reckless and irresponsible, as it failed to take even basic steps to prevent unnecessary harm to immigrant children and families in conducting this raid.”

###

*** Although the Women's Refugee Commission is not currently aware of any additional planned enforcement measures or raids by the Trump administration, click here to access resources for families facing deportation and separation, and here for a toolkit to help parents who have been detained or deported, and attorneys and advocates working alongside them.