Nearly seven-in-10 Mississippi residents said they want the chicken plant employers who allegedly hired hundreds of illegal aliens over Americans prosecuted for doing so, a new survey finds.
In August, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted the largest workplace raid in more than a decade across five food processing plants in Mississippi, netting the arrests of 680 illegal aliens. That same day, though, ICE officials said they released about 300 of the illegal workers back into the U.S. on “humanitarian grounds,” while more than 200 of the illegal workers had prior criminal records. Prosecutors say many of the illegal workers stole Americans’ identities to work at the plants.
Despite federal prosecutors alleging that employers were fully aware that they hired hundreds of illegal aliens to work at their plants, none of the owners or businesses have had charges filed against them.
Mississippi residents overwhelmingly support prosecuting the employers for hiring illegal aliens over Americans, telling Millsaps College/Chism Strategies pollsters that not just the illegal aliens, but the employers should be prosecuted.
More than 68 percent of Mississippi residents said the employers who hired the illegal aliens arrested in the ICE raid should be prosecuted, with only about 15.5 percent opposing their prosecution. Another 16.4 percent of residents said they were unsure of what to do.
Across party lines, Mississippi residents by majorities support prosecuting employers hiring illegal aliens. Among residents who call themselves “strong Democrats,” a majority of about 52 percent said the employers should be prosecuted, as well as 66.8 percent of residents who “lean Democrat.”
With swing voters, those who are not affiliated with Democrats or Republicans, more than 68 percent said employers hiring illegal aliens should be prosecuted, and huge majorities of Republican voters, 76 percent of “strong Republicans,” and 75 percent of “lean Republicans,” said the same.
Federal prosecutors have asserted that Koch Foods, along with the other four food processing plants raided by ICE, “willfully and unlawfully” hired illegal workers over Americans. Koch Foods, specifically, is detailed as having a long record of hiring illegal aliens for more than a decade. Between September 2002 and April 2019, the affidavits state, ICE agents arrested 144 illegal workers at Koch Foods — not including the illegal workers who slipped through the cracks.
In a lawsuit, Koch Foods is suing the federal government, claiming the ICE raid on their plant was “illegal” and unconstitutional, as Breitbart News reported.
Today, there are at least eight million illegal aliens holding American jobs in the U.S. economy that would have otherwise gone to American workers and legal immigrants. The mass employment of illegal aliens by hundreds of businesses, though, continues to go largely ignored by the law, as only 11 employers and no businesses have been federally prosecuted for hiring illegal aliens in the last year.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.