8A z FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2019 z USA TODAY NEWS

JACKSON, Miss. – Nearly half of the
680 people detained in Wednesday’s
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforce-
ment raidsat food processing plants
across Mississippi were released the
same day, according to and ICE spokes-
man.
Bryan Cox, the spokesman, con-
firmed Thursday morning that 300 peo-
ple were released from custody
Wednesday night.
The raids occurred in small towns
near Jackson with a workforce made up
largely of Latino immigrants, including
Bay Springs, Carthage, Canton, Morton,
Pelahatchie and Sebastapol. About 600
agents fanned out across the plants in-
volving several companies, surrounding
the perimeters to prevent workers from
fleeing.
The raids follow President Donald
Trump’s calls for widespread enforce-
ment of immigration lawsand comes af-
ter several crackdowns in other states.
Matthew Albence, U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement’s acting di-
rector, told The Associated Press that
the raids could be the largest such oper-
ation thus far in any single state.
In an emailed statement Wednesday
morning, U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst said,
“U.S. Immigration and Customs En-
forcement’s Homeland Security Inves-
tigations special agents are executing
federal search warrants today at multi-
ple locations across the state of Missis-
sippi as part of a coordinated operation
with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
Southern District of Mississippi pursu-
ant to ongoing HSI administrative and
criminal investigations.”
In a second statement, Hurst said via
email, “The execution of federal search
warrants today was simply about en-
forcing the rule of law in our state and

throughout our great country.”

Bryan Cox, ICE spokesperson, said

everyone taken into custody and de-

tained Wednesday will be processed but

“not everyone is going to be (perma-

nently) detained.”

“You are going to have persons re-

leased,” he said. “ICE makes custody de-

termination on a case-by-case basis

based on the totality of their circum-

stances.”

The names of the plants has not been

publicly released by ICE officials.

However, reporters were on scene at

the Koch Foods processing plant in Mor-

ton.

Another included the Peco Chicken

Processing Plant in Canton.

In an emailed statement, Peco Foods

Inc. confirmed raids took place at three

of their facilities – Canton, Bay Springs

and Sebastopol. The company is “fully

cooperating” with authorities, the

statement read.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lu-

mumba in a statement called the U.S.

immigration raids Wednesday “dehu-

manizing and ineffective.”

The mayor then called on “faith in-

stitutions” in the community to be-

come sanctuaries for “our immigrant

neighbors.”

In his statement, Lumumba said

the raids “will only further alienate

communities from law enforcement.”

However, Councilman Ashby Foote

disagreed with the mayor and said

calling on churches in the community

to act on his behalf was misguided.

“I think the mayor’s statement was

a mistake. We’re a nation of laws and

when you don’t have laws, you have

chaos,” he said.

The crackdown on immigration in

Mississippi comes on top of a mass

shooting in El Paso, Texas, where the

gunman appears to have specifically

targeted immigrants. The shooting has

had a chilling effect on immigrantsin

the metro Jackson area.

Contributing: Justin Vicory, (Jack-

son) Clarion Ledger

ICE released 300 of 680

arrested in roundups

Agents raid processing

plants in Mississippi

Sarah Fowler
Clarion Ledger
USA TODAY NETWORK

Handcuffed workers await transportation to a processing center after a raid

Wednesday by U.S. immigration officials at a Koch Foods plant in Morton, Miss.

Immigration officials raided several food processing plants.ROGELIO V. SOLIS/AP

a report co-author, told The Associat-

ed Press. “The threat of climate change

affecting people’s food on their dinner

table is increasing.”

The review says climate change

threatens our food supply “through in-

creasing temperatures, changing pre-

cipitation patterns, and greater fre-

quency of some extreme events.”

The IPCC report, published Thurs-

day and titled “Climate Change and

Land,” is the latest from scientists

around the globe studying climate

change and how humans can stop – or

contribute to – global temperature in-

creases.

U.N. countries agreed during the

Paris climate change conference in

2015 that global temperature increases

need to be kept below 2 degrees Cen-

tigrade to prevent the most cata-

strophic effects of climate change.

That 2-degree measure is a conserva-

tive estimate, and countries agreed to

strive to keep the rise below 1.5 de-

grees. President Donald Trump an-

nounced in 2017 his decision to with-

draw the United States from the Paris

climate agreement.

“Warming over land has occurred at

a faster rate than the global mean, and

this has had observable impacts on the

land system,” the U.N. report authors

wrote.

The report focuses on how farming

and food production further the prob-

lem. The IPCC estimates that 25% to

30% of all greenhouse gas emissions

come from food systems.

Changing the food we eat by

switching to healthy and sustainable

diets full of grains, fruits, vegetables

and nuts could reduce greenhouse gas

emissions. Meat is identified as “the

single food with the greatest impact on

the environment” in the report.

Food waste is identified as a major

problem: About a third of all food pro-

duced is lost or wasted, according to

the report.

Climate

Continued from Page 1A

The report estimates 25% to 30% of

all greenhouse gas emissions come

from food systems.

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