The mayor of Jackson is calling on churches in the city to provide safe havens for the immigrant community in light of federal raids on several Mississippi processing plants.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba in a statement called the U.S. immigration raids Wednesday "dehumanizing and ineffective."

The mayor then called on "faith institutions" in the community to become sanctuaries for "our immigrant neighbors."

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About 600 agents on Wednesday raided several food processing plants, including the Koch Foods Inc. plant in Morton, about 40 miles east of Jackson.

Three buses filled with men and women employees were taken to a military hangar to be processed for immigration violations. A total 680 persons were detained, according to The Associated Press.

The raids follow President Donald Trump's calls for widespread enforcement of immigration laws and comes after several crackdowns in other states.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s acting director, Matthew Albence told The Associated Press that the Mississippi raids could be the largest operation in any single state.

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In his statement, Lumumba said the raids "will only further alienate communities from law enforcement."

When reached for comment, City Councilman Melvin Priester Jr. said he supported the mayor's call to action.

Priester called the Trump Administration's approach to immigration enforcement "a waste of resources."

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"It's frustrating to see us spend all of these resources going after people who are just trying to survive," he said.

The councilman recalled his trip to Ellis Island, home to the Statue of Liberty, earlier this summer. He drew little distinction between legal and illegal immigration in this case.

"It struck me where we had these periods in the past with varying levels of immigration. We always defined ourselves then as being able to take in people who need help and make our country better," he said.

However, Councilman Ashby Foote disagreed with the mayor and said calling on churches in the community to act on his behalf was misguided.

"I think the mayor's statement was a mistake. We're a nation of laws and when you don't have laws, you have chaos," he said.

"It also puts us in a bad light," Foote continued. "We need the federal government to help us deal with a number of city problems. We could greatly benefit from their assistance, so I think it's a bad idea for the mayor to enlist city institutions into his cause."

Jackson, a sanctuary city?

It's not the first time the mayor has stood in defiance of the Trump administration a on immigration. The Department of Justice under then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions referred to the city of Jackson and 28 other localities as sanctuary cities in 2017.

Then, the DOJ claimed Jackson was in violation of federal immigration law because of an ordinance that prohibits police officers from gathering information related to an individual's immigration status.

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Lumumba defended the ordinance, which was drafted by his father, then City Councilman Chokwe Lumumba. The mayor at the time said questioning individuals on their immigration status was a violation of their constitutional rights and would lead to distrust between law enforcement and the community.

He expressed the same sentiment in Wednesday's statement,

"These raids...will disrupt community policing efforts and cause law enforcement to forfeit credibility and trust among the people they are sworn to protect and serve."

Raids follow El Paso mass shooting

The crackdown on immigration in Mississippi comes on top of a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, where the gunman appears to have specifically targeted immigrants. The shooting has had a chilling effect on immigrants in the metro Jackson area, according to a recent Clarion Ledger story.

"This is precisely why they fled their home countries — because they were targeted for who they are...for people who have suffered tremendous violence or threats for who they are, I imagine this is very terrifying."" said Amelia McGowan, an immigration attorney for the Mississippi Center for Justice.

Mississippi Baptist Convention: 'Decision is up to church leaders'

William Perkins with the Mississippi Baptist Convention said no churches in the convention have been contacted and it would be up to those church leaders to decide whether to shelter immigrants from the federal government.

The convention oversees 2,100 churches across the state and often mobilizes in cases of disaster relief.

"There is no activity right now on the convention level...We’re standing by but we have gotten no requests from any of our churches," he said.

Ole Miss School of Law weighs in

Meanwhile, Cliff Johnson, the director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, released a statement which read:

“What did the government accomplish today by sending hundreds of out-of-state agents into Mississippi for the purpose of rounding up and detaining more than 680 of our hard-working neighbors and friends? We aren’t one bit safer tonight — nobody believes these people were a danger to anyone. Families have been torn apart and local businesses have been hurt. Mississippians didn’t ask for this.”

Johnson added, “Many of us in Mississippi grew up being taught in Sunday School that we should love the stranger because we were once strangers in foreign lands. What happened today flies in the face of those lessons. This is nothing more than mean-spirited political grandstanding.”

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Contact Justin Vicory at 769-572-1418 or jvicory@gannett.com. Follow @justinvicory on Twitter.