'We've been up all night.' Child Protection Services couldn't locate separated children

Sarah Fowler

JACKSON, Miss. – More than 24 hours after 680 people were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, leaving an unknown number of children separated from their parents, the agency had not made contact with the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services.

As of Thursday morning, the state agency did not know how many children were impacted by Wednesday's raids.

"We've been up all night trying to figure this out," said Lea Anne Brandon, MSCPS spokesperson.

MSCPS was not notified of the raids beforehand, Brandon said, and has yet to receive any contact from ICE officials.

Bryan Cox, ICE spokesperson, said Thursday that ICE released approximately 300 people Wednesday night. Cox did not say why they were released or whether the parents of all displaced children were among them.

Raids: ICE released 300 of the 680 detained in raids at Mississippi food processing plants

Previously: Nearly 700 people arrested in ICE raids at Mississippi food processing plants

State lawmaker: Some women were released to care for children

Friends and family console each other while U.S. immigration officials raided Koch Foods Inc., plant in Morton, Miss., Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019. U.S. immigration officials raided several Mississippi food processing plants on Wednesday and signaled that the early-morning strikes were part of a large-scale operation targeting owners as well as employees.

State Rep. Tom Miles, D-Forest, whose district includes several of the plants where the raids took place, said most of the women detained were released Wednesday night so they could be home with their children.

Miles did not know how many women were detained and released, saying the main focus in the community was on the children affected.

Miles said both local businesses and churches offered an outpouring of support to make sure that children didn't come back from their first day of school to an empty house.

"Our concern was that those babies were taken care of," Miles said.

CPS currently has approximately 2,400 children under their care. Brandon said with the number of people detained Wednesday, it's feasible that CPS could see an increase of by approximately 50 percent.

Without any contact from ICE and the number of children impacted unknown, Brandon said it's difficult for the agency to know how they should prepare.

"It's tremendously important that we know so we can get our assets lined up," she said.

Child Protection Services: People want to help, but we can't locate children

The raids happened at seven food processing plants across Mississippi Wednesday, beginning at 7:45 a.m., Cox said.

Once the agency learned of the raids, it immediately mobilized, Brandon said.

"We notified all of our available foster parents and emergency shelter beds to be on standby, and our staff began working to try to locate the children," Brandon said.

The agency's emergency hotline was flooded with calls of people wanting to help Wednesday night, Brandon said, but they did not receive any calls of children "without shelter."

Thursday morning, workers in the affected counties began checking with the schools and churches in an effort to "identify children who may have been alone last night," she said.

School district scrambled to care for children of detainees

Buses with the Scott County School District begin their routes around 6:30 in the morning and the schools are open for breakfast when they arrive, school officials said.

Superintendent Tony McGee said, as of Wednesday afternoon, he knew of at least six families within the district that had a parent caught up in the raids. The students range from kindergarten to high school.

McGee, who met with ICE officials after the raids, said he expected the number to increase. He was not immediately available for comment Thursday morning.

Cox said Wednesday afternoon that people processed were asked if they had children. However, he did not immediately know how many of the people detained in the raid had children at home.

Cox said Wednesday everyone taken into custody and detained Wednesday will be processed but "not everyone is going to be (permanently) detained."

"You are going to have persons released," he said. "ICE makes custody determination on a case-by-case basis based on the totality of their circumstances."

Follow Sarah Fowler on Twitter: @FowlerSarah.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: ICE raids: Mississippi children of 680 detainees unaccounted for