Nation in brief: Sect member gives birth in custody
A mother taken from a polygamist sect and being held as a minor in state custody gave birth Monday to a baby boy who was immediately taken into child-protective custody.
State officials acknowledged the mother may be an adult, and said they were trying to determine her true age. Since state officials raided the sect’s West Texas ranch on April 3, child welfare officials have taken custody of all its children on the grounds that they were endangered by the sect’s underage and polygamous spiritual marriages.
The boy is the second baby born in state custody since the raid.
Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins acknowledged Monday that the mother is among 27 girls whose ages are in dispute.
Crimmins said officials were reviewing documentation for those who claim they are of legal age, and will release them from state custody if they are adults.
Rod Parker, an attorney and spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, accused state officials of deliberately holding a pregnant mother they knew to be of legal age so they could take her baby into custody upon birth.
“They just wanted to keep the mother in custody until they could get the baby,” Parker said.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Hundreds arrested in meat plant bust
Federal immigration agents raided a northeastern Iowa meat processing plant Monday, arresting more than 300 people and housing many of them at a converted fairgrounds.
The raid of the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville was the largest in state history and had been planned for months, said U.S. Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth.
The raid, one of several conducted at meat-processing plants around the country in recent years, was aimed at seeking evidence of identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers and people who are in the country illegally, said Tim Counts, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement .
Authorities arrived at the Agriprocessors plant about 10 a.m. and presented company officials with search warrants. Agents asked to speak with all the employees, and plant officials cooperated and shut down their operations.
Agriprocessors, the world’s largest kosher meatpacking plant, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.