[gavel] we are going to start our second panel of witnesses. I welcome the second panel of witnesses. First witness, mr. Jeremiah, is a special agent in charge of the new Orleans Field Office for u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the department of Homeland Security. I. C. E. Es has worked with Homeland Security investigations for over 10 years and has an oppressive record. Welcome. Have the honorable michael lee who is currently serving as a sheriff of scott county, mississippi. The sheriffs Law Enforcement duties include keeping the peace within the county, in addition to serving as the countys jailer and keeping a jail docket. He currently lives in forest, mississippi. As ther. William serves mayor of canton, mississippi. Canton was one of the six cities. E. Re the site of an i. C raid of and why he began working in the Public Interest at the age of 16. Thee began working in Public Interest at the age of 16. Without objections, the witnesses full statements will be inserted into the record. I now ask each witness to summarize his or her statement for about five minutes ending with mr. Miles. Thank you for the opportunity. Hit your mike. Sorry about that mic. Sorry about that, sir. Thank you for the opportunity to be before you to discuss hsis workforce strategy which includes enforcement, criminal arrests of employers, compliance for i9 employment eligibility verification inspections, civil fines and suspension and disbarment, and outreach. The mutual agreements between government Employers Program. Where the prime and dutch primary criminal agency and focused on dismantling transnational criminal organizations. As the sole agency, we combined trade,ects our nations travel, and immigration systems. Special agents investigate all crossborder activity and work in close coordination with federal, state, local, tribal, and International Partners to secure the United States. Today, i would like to speak about the successful efforts in targeting Law Enforcement operations. We dont conduct raids, we are checkpoints. Any central parts create panic and put Law Enforcement personnel in unnecessary danger. Groups falsely reporting activities are doing a disservice to those who claim they support. Hsi utilizes i9 inspections across a wide spectrum of industries through the u. S. Incivil offenses or engage fraud or other seriously improper conduct. Mutual agreement between government and Employers Program is a voluntary partnership with the private sector that offers training to strengthen the integrity of employers workforces and curb employment of unauthorized workers. The image programs to promote principles of at the conduct and prevent the deliberate hiring of unauthorized workers through employers selfgovernance. Diligent employers as diligent employers adopt the practices, hsi can enhance its focus on employers and violators of the nations immigration laws. Hsi prioritizes its criminal work site enforcement onestigations by focusing the most egregious violators, including employers that exploit workers based on unlawful status , aid in the smuggling of alien workforce into the United States, create false identity documents or facilitate document fraud, utilize unauthorized workers as a business model, and or knowingly or on willfully higher illegal workers. Unauthorized workers. On august 7, 2019, hsi executed eight federal criminal search warrants and seven federal civil search warrants. These warrants were the result of an 18 month investigation that was initiated pursuant to tip line leads against the companies involved. Today, i will attempt to explain it in the time allotted. Hsi worked diligently to develop a plan to address the concerns out of previous activities of this size or nature. Hsi conducted coordination meetings on a biweekly and later weekly basis among all of our participating partners as well as i. C. E. Enforcement and removal operations leading up to the execution of the operation. Each Search Location was giving its own group to manage decisions at a local level, minimize the detention period of those determined to be amenable to some humanitarian release. There were 30 32 cases. Hsi preassigned personnel to make phone calls to the impacted schools after the operations began. We set up a friends and family telephone hotline which provided custody information to relatives and friends of individuals detained in connection with this operation. The hotline provided information to 343 colors. Hsi has dedicated more than 24,000 investigative hours to this case, seized more than 850,000 humans 850,000 documents, and more than 22 terabytes of data. There are 119 indictments for criminal activities in the identification of id theft. These investigations continue. Im grateful to share hsis efforts to conduct targeted actions and discuss our continued commitment. I think you for the support you prided hsi as we execute our Mission Provide hsi as we execute our mission. Thank you for your testimony. I recognize sheriff lee for five minutes. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, it is an honor and privilege to appear before you to discuss the recent Enforcement Actions in scott county. Im mike lee, sheriff of scott county, and have been since 2007. I previously served as chief of police for the city of forrest for 10 years and have nearly 30 years of Law Enforcement career enforcement. I have lived in scott county all of my life. As the highest ranked Law Enforcement officer in scott county, im responsible for policing an entire county. Her perspective of our county, scott county is east of the capital city. The county has approximately 20,000 residents. The most recent census data provided by the u. S. Census bureau states approximately 11. 5 of our citizens identify as latino. We have had latino workers in scott county since the 1990s. 3000 people,loyees some of which are immigrants. Latinos constitute a large workforce in scott county, and are important to our economy. Those workers have become a part of our community. Their children attend local schools and participate in local sports. The feedback i have received from our citizens is that folks ,mire latino communities their work ethic and commitment to family. In my role as a sheriff, i do not believe latino workers present a danger to our community. I face that based that on the fact that ive not seen a spike in crime as a result of latino individuals living and working in our county. Currently, the Scott County Detention Center is holding approximately 125 inmates. Only three of those 125 inmates identify as latino. One of those three is a scott county resident. Opinion, is the best evidence of the lack of impact latino workers have had on scott countys criminal justice system. Simply put, the Scott County Sheriffs Department has not had problems with the latino community. I previously mentioned cook foods. Countysne of scott largest employers. On august 7, 2019, cook foods was one of the plants in the state of mississippi that federal officials rated. Nearly 250 raided. Nearly 250 employees were arrested. As sheriff, let me say i swore an oath to uphold the constitution of the United States and constitution of the state of mississippi. I stand behind our federal officers and in no way am i criticizing the hard work of enforcing immigration laws. However, i feel the actions on this day could have been handled better had my agency been prepared in advance. My office had no notice of the raid, and therefore, was taken by surprise. After the raid, my office, the school system, local citizens, they all had to step up to care for many of the children whose parents were arrested. Children of those arrested had nowhere to go for hours once school let out. The first parents to return to scott county did not arrive until 11 p. M. That night. Thanks to our schools and local citizens, that included my wife and daughter and my department, we were able to care for those children during the interim. However, forewarning of the action or while the action was foregoing would have allowed my office to be better prepared for the problems left in the wake of the raid. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this morning. [applause] thank you very much. Recognizes the doctor for his statement for five minutes. Physician inticing canton. I first want to recognize congressman lee and thank you for all of the good deeds you have done. Not just for mississippi, but for this nation. Congressman thompson, we are well aware of your contributions to this nation and congressman cohen nd congressman congressman cohen, thank you for being here. I have with me mr. Gary hannah, and also my chief of police, and i have my fire chief, mr. Kenneth pierce what happened on the day of the raid was supposed perpetrated by i. C. E. I want to take you back to august the seventh, 2019, where without warning or acknowledgment, i rated pico portrait for the purpose of identifying raided pico portrait for the purpose of identifying undocumented immigrants who worked there. Seven industries in the state of mississippi rated force raided by i. C. E. The purpose of accomplishing and intending mission. As the mayor, i was never notified. Or informed about the preplans or imminent rate of our businesses here in the city of canton. Dental ry was acted accidental and the consequence of a citizen informing me that picos, was at carrying workers away by handcuffs, and two were transported to the National Guard armory in mississippi. I approached one of the i. C. E. Officers and introduced myself as the mayor of the city of canton. I requested to speak with whomever was in charge for the purpose of trying to understand and assess what was occurring in my city. It was at that time i was able only hispanic records being placed for the purpose of being transported to a site which was unknown to me at that time. To my knowledge, no africanamerican workers were arrested or transported. , theief of Police Superintendent of education, and the director of the department of Human Services were never informed. It is my understanding that, at the time of the raid taking place, some of the individuals were documented with appropriate papers. This was the first day of school. The children visuals were ofed and transported these individuals who were arrested and transported to be processed, the children were still in school. The children returned home, not knowing that their parents had been arrested. The hispanic population in canton are not gang members. They are not rapists. They are not murderers. But folks who work and pay taxes, purchase goods, take care of each other, and their families. Its my understanding that picos foods, there was at least 125 to 130 hispanic employees who were arrested that resulted in a loss of 125 to 130 pico workers. I do not know the Economic Loss to pico nor do i know the Economic Loss or impact of this but to the city of canton, i do know it was an economic impact. Throughout the state of mississippi, there were seven Poultry Industries rated, 680 people arrested, raided, 680 people arrested, those were released. It was a terrifying moment for those not arrested, including the separation of parents to children. Its my understanding that nothing was in place for the children of the arrestees to be protected and secured. Dhsocial Services Including , nor a place or notice to target children who were going to be separated from their parents. That the opinions ravesn thats when ice the community, it is a target in that community. At least the mayor and governing authorities, the chief of police, the superintendent of schools, and the director of Human Services should be placed on notice. It was a terrifying experience for the arrestees and a pleasant experience for me and my community. Congressman cohen talked about nina simone. A lot of people in here are too young to remember her, but when she was talking about the record in mississippi, she was talking about plessy versus ferguson. Brown v. Board of education. She was talking about the little rock nine. She was talking about being blocked out of the university of mississippi. She was talking about Sharonda Goodman in chains. She was talking about the hostages of humanity and mans inhumanity to man. She was talking about brutality during the days of yesteryear. You asked the question, have things changed. I hope so. Thank all of you. Thank you very much. [applause] i yield myself five minutes for questioning. Testimony was as a chief Law Enforcement official in scott county. He received no advance notice of the i. C. E. Raids we are talking about here . No, sir. No advanced notice or notice while the raids were continuing. Your testimony as the mayor of canton, that your conversation with the superintendent of education and your chief of police and fire chief, that there was no notification. Thats correct, sir. Mr. Miles, what does the policy for i. C. E. Say about notification . To be honest with you, mr. Chairman, we dont have a policy that says we are obligated to notify anyone. I want to enter into a record, a record, a letter. From matthew who is deputy director, senior official performing his duties as director for i. C. E. Let me tell you what he said in his later i. C. E. Let me tell you what he said in his letter. He said the School Districts contacted include covington, jasper, jones, wayne, lauderdale, smith, newton, scott, madison, rankin, clark, leake, laurel, and forrest county. Somebody did wrong. [laughter] i will enter this into the record. Is their question, mr. Chairman . I have a list of all of the names we contacted. If you have them, you need to provide them to the committee. Im more than happy to provide them. The scott contact county Sheriffs Department . I never said i did, sir. We did say we contacted the School Districts. Hold on. I will ask the question and you just answer. Did you contact the scotts county got county Sheriffs Department . We did not. But we did contact the School Districts. Did you contact the Madison CountySchool District . Yes, sir. Assistant superintendent ellen are good argood. Camden doesnt seem to be on here. It looks like we only contacted county School Districts. So if i told you pico foods was located in the Canton School then it fashion line would then i would say it was an oversight. The list i have has no reflection of a Canton School being contacted. What social Service Agencies did you contact . We did not contact any social Service Agencies, but it was my understanding the u. S. Attorneys office spoke to someone in the social services industry, but i dont remember their name. Who told you that . United the United States attorney. He was in our office in jackson, mississippi, the day of the raid. He told you he talked to somebody he told you he talked to somebody but you dont know who . I dont member the name he gave me. Have you gotten any companiesn about the who had the individuals employed . What do you mean . You performed a worksite raid. No, sir. We did eight criminal search warrants. You asked me if i got any information about the companies. I entered we seized 850,000 documents, and we seized one to two terabytes of information. T is not needed to prove seized 22 terabytes of information. That is not needed to prove what is needed . That is our investigation against the other allegations in the investigation. What other allegations . The one you keep a late into, whether we are investigating a company or not area did im just dying to get to the end for not. To thejust trying to get answers. Im just doing the best i can. But not very good. Are you insinuating im lying . No. I told you i got 850,000 documents. I will ask the questions. You just answer only when you are asked the question. No other lines. Ok. Thank you. Sheriff, you have been in scott county all your life. One of the things we are trying to do with this hearing is determine whether or not the withe who were arrested threats to the community, had they created any problem. I believe your testimony pretty much said these are good people, am i correct . Yes, sir. Premuch let me make sure im making this pretty much, lets me make sure im making this clear. The workers taken, primarily if not all, may have criminal records unknown to me, but were good, hardworking people. I yield to the gentlelady from texas. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Let me thank all of the witnesses and thank mr. Miles, sheriff lee. Greetings from my sheriff in houston. I work extensively with Law Enforcement and, mayor, let me give greetings from my mayor in houston. I know you probably have interacted. Thank you for your leadership. This hearing is not intended to not recognize the legal apparatus of the United States of america dealing with the question of law and immigrants. We are a nation of laws, and a nation of immigrants. Pointedly try to raise some concerns, and i want to take it i want you to take it in spirit that i have responsibility of oversight. Chairman has brought us here for the hearing. Did you find any high dollar the 608 persons you wrapped up and raided . I would ask you to specify high dollar. Somebody