Back in August, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained 680 illegal aliens during raids on seven food processing plants in Mississippi. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi Mike Hurst announced on Thursday that 119 of those illegal aliens have been prosecuted with various crimes from reentering the United States after previous deportation, falsifying immigration papers, claiming to be U.S. citizens, and misusing the Social Security numbers of American citizens. The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Mississippi announced the prosecutions in a press release.
"To date, 47 of the 119 indicted illegal aliens have pled guilty, with a number of others indicating their intent to plead guilty. Of those who have already pled guilty, 26 admitted to fraudulently using the Social Security Number of an American citizen, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B). The other 21 of these illegal aliens have pled guilty to unlawfully reentering the United States after having been previously deported or removed, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a). The remaining have been charged with these same crimes, as well as some charged with falsely claiming to be a United States Citizen, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 911, and making false statements in immigration documents, in violated of 18 U.S.C. § 1546."
U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst says the actions of these foreign individuals have harmed U.S. citizens, "resulting in citizens not being able to get loans or credit cards, obtain health insurance, and perform other basic activities." Hurst says, "Turning a blind eye to their illegal acts would not be fair to our nation, their victims, or the millions of naturalized American citizens who waited years and meticulously followed the process by which to become an American."
119 Illegal Aliens Prosecuted For Stealing Identities of Americans, Falsifying Immigration Documents, Fraudulently Claiming to be U.S. Citizens, Other Crimes. @ICEgov https://t.co/5blZUHTFKT
— U.S. Attorney SDMS (@SDMSNews) November 7, 2019
The operation back in August involved nearly 600 agents. It was the largest single-state workplace enforcement action in U.S. history, according to officials. In a statement, ICE said staff was interviewing the foreign nationals after the raid to "record any potential mitigating humanitarian situations."
ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) executed multiple federal criminal search warrants at seven agricultural processing plants across Mississippi Wednesday morning as part of an ongoing HSI worksite enforcement criminal investigation https://t.co/R1jQoGwuuB pic.twitter.com/XwTSgyp5B5
— ICE (@ICEgov) August 8, 2019
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