Federal authorities have released 300 of the nearly 700 workers detained in the Mississippi immigration raids on Wednesday, according to officials.

“Approximately 30 detained aliens were released yesterday on humanitarian grounds at the individual sites,” said the US Attorney’s Office for the state’s Southern District in a press release Thursday.

“Another 270 detained aliens were released after being processed by HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] at the National Guard base in Pearl and returned to the place where they were originally encountered.”

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency conducted the raids on Wednesday at seven food processing plants throughout central Mississippi. About 680 people were said to have been detained.

ICE agents asked the workers when they arrived at the immigration processing center whether they had any children who were at school or child care and needed to be picked up, according to DOJ officials.

It is believed that “all children were with at least one of their parents as of last night,” they said.

“In order to make it possible for detained aliens to contact family members and address childcare issues, HSI made cell phones available for use by detained aliens to make arrangements for the care of their children or other dependents,” explained the US attorney’s office. “In addition, HSI had liaison officers working with the school districts to facilitate this process.

“As part of HSI procedures pursuant to this operation, if HSI encountered two alien parents with minor children at home, HSI released one of the parents on humanitarian grounds and returned that individual to the place from which they were arrested,” the DOJ release added. “HSI similarly released any single alien parent with minor children at home on humanitarian grounds and physically returned that person to the place where he or she was originally detained.”

Wednesday’s raids unfolded early in the morning in the cities and towns of Bay Springs, Carthage, Canton, Morton, Pelahatchie and Sebastapol.

Federal officials failed to notify the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services before detaining the workers with children, according to the Clarion-Ledger.

“We’ve been up all night trying to figure this out,” said MDCPS spokesperson Lea Anne Brandon on Thursday.

A rep for ICE confirmed the failed correspondence with the Clarion-Ledger.

“Law enforcement arrests people every day who may have children,” said agency spokesperson Bryan Cox. “Protocols and procedures [were] in place” and ICE coordinated with school officials to reunite the kids with their parents.