Trump administration officials defend Mississippi immigration raids

Trump administration officials on Sunday defended recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across seven Mississippi food-processing plants that resulted in the arrest of 680 workers.

“Something like this has been planned for over a year,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “This is a criminal investigation with 14 federal warrants issued by a judge, and ICE had to follow through on that. It was already planned and in motion.”

McAleenan was pressed by NBC host Chuck Todd on the arrests of hundreds of undocumented workers, but not their employers, who McAleenan acknowledged were “exploiting undocumented workers.”

DHS is in the “middle of an ongoing investigation,” McAleenan responded.

“You get a warrant from a federal judge with probable cause. You then go gather evidence at the sites. And then you look at the appropriate charges in concert with the Department of Justice and U.S. attorney to see how you proceed,” he said, later adding: “You can't ignore people that are there without the proper permission to be in the United States.”