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SUBJECT:  #FreeLladi:  Immigrant Alliance of MS demands release of victim of ICE’s 2019 raids 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
April 11, 2022
Contact:  Tim (IAJE), 205-834-2078 
Salvador (NDLON), 202-746-2099

“Free Lladi!” - Immigrant Alliance of Mississippi Demands Release of Victim of ICE’s 2019 Workplace Raids 

   Lladi was a victim of ICE’s 2019 workplace raids targeting poultry plants where workers denounced rampant sexual harassment and discrimination 

(See photos of the press conf here and here)

Jackson, Mississippi -- On Monday, a delegation of workers, advocates, and community leaders hosted a press conference and delivered a letter at the Jackson office of Congressman Bennie Thompson, Chair of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security.  The groups are calling for the immediate release of a young woman named Lladi Ambrocio who was deported in ICE’s infamous 2019 workplace raids, and is today detained in one of ICE’s immigrant prisons, after having made the dangerous journey back to reunite with her family and escape threats.  

“For our sister Lladi, we have a message, you are not alone, we are united to fight for your release,” said Isela Gonzalez of the Immigrant Alliance for Justice & Equity of Mississippi (IAJE of MS), the Jackson-based organization accompanying many workers impacted by 2019 ICE raids.  

The delegation delivered a community letter to Rep. Thompson’s office, requesting that the Congressman, who serves as Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, take action to secure Lladi’s immediate release.  IAJE representatives confirmed they had reached out to Bennie Thompson’s office over one month ago.  Read the full letter here:  https://www.iajems.org/free-lladi 

“For DHS Secretary Mayorkas and for Congressman Bennie Thompson, we also have a message: It's time to repair the damage caused by ICE’s raids, and protect the workers that were impacted.  The first step must be to release Lladi from ICE’s immigrant prison,” added Isela.  

The infamous 2019 ICE raids that arrested nearly 700 immigrant and indigenous people living and working in central Mississippi targeted specific poultry plants where workers denounced - and the U.S. Labor Department confirmed - rampant discrmination and sexual harassment.  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has acknowledged that under the Trump Administration ICE raids were “used as a tool by exploitative employers to suppress and retaliate against workers’ assertion of labor laws.”  But despite being the victim of ICE’s retaliatory workplace raid, Lladi remains in an ICE immigrant prison in Georgia.  

“Those ICE raids targeted the very factories where indigenous and immigrant brothers and sisters denounced sexual harassment and discrimination,” said Salvador Sarmiento of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) outside of the offices of Rep. Bennie Thompson.  “Lladi’s case is an urgent reminder that too many workers are still suffering the harm of those raids.  There has been NO accountability.  It’s not enough to say there won’t be more raids, there must be repairs for the harms done.” 

“Today there is no excuse for Lladi to spend another week, another day, another minute, jailed in ICE’s migrant prisons,” added Sarmiento.  

Congressman Bennie Thompson serves as Chair of the US House Committee on Homeland Security, which provides oversight of DHS.  


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