Immigrants Win 'Unprecedented' Settlement Over Violent ICE Raid in Tennessee

[cbabe]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/immigration-raid-settlement

Immigrants Win 'Unprecedented' Settlement Over Violent ICE Raid in Tennessee

"Today's ruling is a testament to the incredible power and resiliency of immigrant workers and their communities," said one advocate.

JULIA CONLEY
Feb 28, 2023

Immigrant rights groups celebrated a historic victory late Monday as a federal judge handed down what is believed to be the first-ever class action settlement over a workplace immigration raid in the United States, awarding $1.17 million to nearly 100 people who were targeted by the Trump administration in 2018.

Most of the plaintiffs will receive more than $5,700 each, while a total of $475,000 will be split between six people who the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee found were eligible to be compensated for "negligent or wrongful acts by agents of the federal government," The New York Timesreported Monday.

The plaintiffs, represented by legal advocacy groups including the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), were rounded up by the Department of Homeland Security in April 2018 after an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) found that their employer at a meat processing plant in Bean Station, Tennessee was evading taxes by paying them in cash.

"They used the pretext of a tax investigation of the plant's owner to plan and carry out a full-blown operation targeting the Latino workers," Michelle Lapointe, deputy legal director for the NILC, told the Times on Monday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents descended on the plant and violently arrested dozens of Latino workers, separating them from their white coworkers and physically assaulting some of them. The warrant the agents had to enter the premises did not authorize them to arrest anyone. Only one Latino employee avoided the raid—by hiding in a meat freezer.

A majority of the workers were placed in deportation court proceedings and at least 20 were deported shortly after the raid.

More than 150 children were directly affected by the raid, as their parents were detained. The nearby city of Morristown rallied around the immigrant community, providing legal services, donations, help with locating detained people, and child care.

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[judesedit]

1. Yay!

[Carlitos Brigante]

2. K&R! nt

[republianmushroom]

3. like it

[moonshinegnomie]

4. the agents should have to pay out of their own pocket

plus their ICE careers should be ended

[Grins]

5. $79k for 6 people? $5,700 for others! They got away with it.

Peanuts for what they endured.

[Warpy]

6. Good. I remember stories of those kids stranded at school and day care

with no one to pick them up. It was massive ICE overreach and some of those guys and whoever ordered that botched raid should have seen some jail time. You don't dehumanize other people and treat them that way.

[PatSeg]

7. What a truly horrible time to live in

May be never forget what a cruel monster that man was.

I am glad these workers received a settlement, but that is nothing compared to the pain and grief they were subjected to.

[Magoo48]

8. Damn good news.