Prosecution: ICE reprimands Latino workers with racial slurs

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The seven plaintiffs in this case claim that the authorities illegally targeted Latin American workers when they stormed the Southeast Provision meat packing plant in April 2018. .

"They arrested these workers solely on the basis of their race, using intrusive, militaristic and even violent measures.It is a blatant override for the forces of order," said Meredith Stewart, a lawyer. at the bar of the Southern Poverty Law Center. and one of the workers' lawyers.

"They seized and forcibly arrested about 100 Latin American workers, were reprimanded by racist slurs, hit a worker in the face and shouted guns in the faces of many others," the lawsuit said. "In the meantime, the police did not arrest the white factory workers, nor subject them to the same intrusive and aggressive treatment and to the same lengthy detention as the Latino workers."

Melissa Keaney, a lawyer at the National Immigration Law Center and a member of the workers' legal team, told reporters Thursday that the lawsuit was the first to challenge a large-scale enforcement of state-owned workplaces. -United.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court against nearly 40 unnamed and unnamed agents and agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE spokesman Bryan Cox declined to comment on the trial because of the agency's policy of not commenting on ongoing litigation.

"In general," he said, "the activities of the CIE are conducted in strict compliance with federal laws and agency policy."

Cox noted that the operation was the result of a federal criminal investigation.

"Describing the operation as a repressive action on immigration is inaccurate, it was a federal criminal investigation that also led to immigration arrests," he said. declared.

Southeastern Provision is not designated as a defendant in the lawsuit.

ICE has stepped up the implementation operations of the yards since the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

"When we find you on a construction site, we will not turn our heads," said Thomas Homan, former director of ICE, in 2017. "We will pursue the employer who knowingly hired an illegal alien. … We will always arrest someone who is here illegally, that is our job. "

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Nearly 100 workers were arrested during the April 2018 raid in Bean Station, Tennessee. At the time, it was the largest law enforcement operation on the job site in almost a decade. Since then, other major operations have been reported, including raids in June in an Ohio garden center and an Ohio meat supplier.

In court documents filed at the time of the search in Tennessee, an IRS special agent said the plant owners were under investigation for allegedly running away from taxes, filing false tax returns and hiring immigrants who were illegally in the country.

Owner James Brantley pleaded guilty last year to being charged by the federal government with tax evasion, wire fraud and the introduction and hosting of aliens, according to the records. of the court. He should be sentenced in June.

During a phone call to reporters announcing the lawsuit on Thursday, the lawyers refused to discuss the immigration status of the plaintiffs at the time of the raid.

"We do not believe that the immigration status of one of our complainants has any bearing on the claims we have presented here, and this is not something we are discussing", Keaney said.

Immigration advocates said the Tennessee raid was having a devastating impact not only on the workers, but also on their neighbors and other members of the community. As CNN had reported at the time, more than 500 children missed school the next day.

Stephanie Teatro, co-director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said many people are still in shock.

"When a raid of this magnitude occurs in a community," she said, "it's like a bomb has exploded."

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