Vigil Marks Anniversary of Massive Illegal Immigration Raid

One year after the largest raid of illegal immigrants in the history of the Department of Homeland Security was conducted in Laurel, that community is still feeling the effects. MPB's Phoebe Judge reports.

On August 25th 2008, 595 illegal immigrants employed by Howard Industries, a manufacturing company in Laurel, were arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or I.C.E special agents. One year later 424 of those detained have been deported back to their home countries. At a vigil held last night in Laurel, residents and community organizers came together to commemorate the 1st anniversary of the Howard Industries Raid. Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance says that raid has had devastating effects,

“When you are talking about 595 workers that were arrested, you can imagine the effect that it had on those families beginning with their children, and the economy of Laurel was hit hard when people left.”

Samuel Parra is the owner of the Mexican Grocery in Laurel. After the raid he lost 60% of his business says the raid has had a far reaching impact on his community,

“I lost jobs I lost works. I think it is too bad, I think the situation is too bad, to the families, to the community. It’s too bad.”

A number of work sight enforcement investigations have been conducted by the I.C.E across the country in the past couple of years, and Temple Black a spokesmen for the agency says it is not just the undocumented workers who are targeted but also the employers,

“It’s important to eliminate the magnate of illegal employment by targeting employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens to create an in order to obtain an unfair advantage over their competitors.”

The human resources manager at Howard Industries during the raid is now under indictment, and nine of those workers detained during the raid have plead guilty to federal identity fraud charges.