Posted on 07/29/2005 6:52:37 PM PDT by Teacher317
30 Kids Left Behind After Immigration Raid By MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press Writer
ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - About 30 children, some as young as 3 months old, were left without their parents after immigration agents raided a poultry plant and took the parents away to face possible deportation.
While some of the arrested workers were able to call and arrange care for their children, others were not and a local church had to help make arrangements.
The mayor said what happened to the children was a shame.
"A lot of those families had kids in day care in different places, and they didn't know why Mommy and Daddy didn't come pick them up," Arkadelphia Mayor Charles Hollingshead said.
Federal agents arrested 119 people Tuesday in a raid that was triggered after a former worker at Petit Jean Poultry said she supplied others with fake identification cards. Authorities said 115 were from Mexico, two were from Honduras and the others were from El Salvador and Guatemala.
Temple Black, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New Orleans, said Friday that each person arrested was asked whether they had children and they all said they did not.
"We interviewed every person and asked that specific question, and we were told that there were none," he said.
Black later said that some of those arrested told agents that their children were with relatives. Children are normally placed with relatives until their parents are either returned to the community or deported.
Jose Luis Vidal said his sister and brother-in-law left behind children aged 10, 5 and 1 as they were deported to Laredo, Mexico.
"The children are very sad, especially the baby. She cries all the time," Vidal said in an interview conducted in Spanish.
His sister is trying to arrange a work permit to return to the United States, but is not sure of her prospects.
Clark County Sheriff Troy Tucker said agents failed to tell his agency about the raid. If they had, deputies would have made sure the immigration officials knew about the children, some of whom had been in the local public schools for years, he said.
"The kids were just left," Tucker said. "They're not doing their job by simply questioning them and asking them whether they have children and not contacting anyone locally."
Some of the workers agreed to deportation and others have challenged their arrests. Those fighting deportation were released pending hearings and some have returned to Arkadelphia.
That's a whole lotta anchor babies!!
Don't you remember that headline article about divorce courts taking away male custody rights as well?
.oOsarcOo.
Those eeeeevil government agents.
Sounds like a whole lot of lying going on. The old "for the children" Clinton era nonsense.
Simple,
Deport the brats.
Problem solved.
As with anyone who breaks the law,maybe they should think about their children before they do it.
"Deport the brats and all the illegals and jail and fine the employer.
Amazing.
I'm a softee when it comes to babies and very young kids, though.
So criminals can lie to their arresting officiers and then hang responsibility on the officers for the consequences of their lies?
Boo fnnn hoo
Look at thr bright side - tax payers are goona save of bundle of money with those kids out of school ...
It sounds like the parents made sure the kids were taken care of. The part about the kids being sad is unacceptable. The relative should take them to the border to be with their momma. I don't really get too upset with the illegals but I am with our government for giving the impression for so long that this was ok.
Even better!
:-D
There used to be a lot of nice country ladies being supported by those jobs until the chicken packers started bringing in cheap illegal labor. Let this be a warning to them..and their crummy employers. I'll pay more for chicken at the store..so what.
I wonder if it's the Clinton friends, Tyson.
My sentiments exactly.
Releasing them until their hearings drives me nuts.
"Clark County Sheriff Troy Tucker said agents failed to tell his agency about the raid. If they had, deputies would have made sure the immigration officials knew about the children, some of whom had been in the local public schools for years, he said"
Sounds to me like the local sheriff was mad that he wasn't in the 'know' about this! My guess is, they didn't notify him cause they suspected someone would tip them off! If the sheriff knew these kids were in the schools for years, then why................. oh, never mind!!
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