'Jails in every sense': After ICE raid, what's next for those detained?

After U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's largest immigration raid in at least a decade, those 680 people initially detained at poultry plants in Mississippi Wednesday are facing an uncertain future. 

Approximately 300 were given a charging document, a court date in front of an immigration judge and released. Some were equipped with an ankle monitor, according to ICE spokesperson Bryan Cox.

The remaining were transported to three different locations: Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Pine Prairie, Louisiana, La Salle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana, and Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, Cox said. 

What comes next?

Detention: Days for families to find loved ones

Amelia McGowan, an immigration attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice, said for those in the  detention facilities, "Often, it will take days for their families and other loved ones to find them."

"It is important to remember that while these facilities are administrative and not criminal, meaning people jailed there are not held for criminal charges and are not serving criminal sentences there, they are jails in nearly every sense," McGowan said. 

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"Even though many have no criminal charges and have never had a conviction, they wear jumpsuits and handcuffs, and live behind bars and razor wire. Some, but not all, detainees will be able to seek a bond, but bond amounts are often prohibitively high."

Cox said bond amounts are set by immigration judges and "vary," adding that any comment from attorneys about the amount of a bond would be an "opinion." He could not immediately identify Friday how many people were at each of the three facilities had requested a bond hearing.  

"It's just like being in a prison," said Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance. "The whole system is terrible and it's really set up to dehumanize people."

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MIRA is currently working on trying to identify those who have been detained but, Chandler said, "ICE has not been forthcoming at all."

A spokesperson for the Adams County Correctional Center could not be reached for comment. 

Deportation proceedings 

Many people who are detained will then become part of removal proceedings, formerly known as deportation proceedings, in immigration court, McGowan said. 

"In most cases, ICE cannot remove a person from the country on its own," she said. "The Constitution guarantees that most immigrants will have a right to a hearing before an immigration judge, who will determine whether the person has a legal basis to stay in the country.  

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"These grounds include protections, for example, for certain people who have close US-citizen or permanent resident relatives or who fled persecution and torture in their home countries."

Right to counsel doesn't mean they'll get counsel

While people in removal proceedings have a right to counsel, the counsel will not be provided at the government’s expense, with very few exceptions, McGowan said. 

"Because the demand for pro bono immigration legal services far exceeds the capacity of the few nonprofits who provide it, many people will face these very adversarial proceedings alone, often in rural, isolated detention centers, far from their spouses, children, communities, and support networks," McGowan said.

MIRA is coordinating an effort to work with attorneys who are willing to work pro bono to help those detained, Chandler said. 

"They have to have an attorney because immigration law is extremely complicated and, on top of that, no two situations are alike," he said. "It's extremely important."

McGowan said, "Without meaningful access to legal counsel, many immigrants lose otherwise winnable cases and are often sent to places where they will face a lifetime of separation from their loved ones, and even persecution, torture, and death."

Contact Sarah Fowler at 601-961-7303 or sfowler@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.