As part of a federal effort to secure the southern border, a law enforcement agency in Mississippi has announced the arrests of 25 individuals traveling through the state without proof of citizenship.
According to the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, a joint operation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Division of Customs and Border Protection was executed between March 17 and March 21 along the Interstate 20 corridor.
Dubbed “Operation Magnolia,” the operation’s goal was “to disrupt both drug and human trafficking in the area of operations which can be present with illegal aliens being transported from one area to another for the purpose of either sex or labor trafficking,” according to a press release from RCSD.
Of the undocumented immigrants taken into custody, home countries included Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. While no names have been released, the sheriff’s department noted that 22 of the 25 have been processed for removal from the U.S., while three will be prosecuted under the re-entry after deportation federal statute.
Officers from the New Orleans Border Patrol Sector and the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office assisted with the operation.
