Some Mississippi immigration raid detainees housed in private Mississippi prison

Published 8:07 am Tuesday, August 13, 2019

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman confirmed Monday that some detainees arrested during workplace raids at Mississippi poultry plants last week are being housed in Adams County.

ICE Southern Region Communications Director Bryan Cox said some of the people arrested last week who allegedly entered the United States illegally were being held at the Adams County Correctional Facility as well as the LaSalle ICE Processing Center and the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center.

Cox said he could not immediately provide the exact number of detainees at each facility who were among the 680 migrant arrests at seven poultry plants in Mississippi last Wednesday.

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Cox told the Associated Press more than 300 of those arrested had been released by Thursday morning with notices to appear before immigration judges.

Cox said ICE began utilizing the Natchez facility, which is owned by CoreCivic, in late June as CoreCivic was nearing the end of its contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

As of July 8, ICE housed 471 inmates at the facility, Cox said.

Amanda Gilchrist, Director of Public Affairs for CoreCivic, said due to ICE’s emergent need for detention capacity, the Bureau of Prisons extended its contract and began moving inmates out of the facility and offered the available space to ICE.

“The Bureau of Prisons contract has been extended until the end of the month (August 31),” Gilchrist said. “(CoreCivic) does not have an announcement regarding a new contract with (ICE).”