When immigration authorities raided a poultry plant and took away more than 100 employees to face deportation, some workers were able to call home and arrange care for their children. But about 30 children, some as young as 3 months old, were left behind with no parents after the arrests, officials said. "A lot of those families had kids in day care in different places, and they didn't know why Mommy and Daddy didn't come pick them up," Arkadelphia Mayor Charles Hollingshead said. A local church ground was helping make arrangements for them. Temple Black, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New Orleans, said Friday that each person arrested was asked whether they had children and they all said they did not. "We interviewed every person and asked that specific question, and we were told that there were none," he said. Black later said that some of those arrested told agents that their children were with relatives. Children are normally placed with relatives until their parents are either returned to the community or deported. Federal agents arrested 119 people Tuesday in a raid that was triggered after a former worker at Petit Jean Poultry said she supplied others with fake identification cards. Authorities said 115 were from Mexico, two were from Honduras and the others were from El Salvador and Guatemala.
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