ICE raids meatpacking plant in rural Tennessee; 97 immigrants arrested

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

ICE raids meatpacking plant in rural Tennessee; 97 immigrants arrested

By Maria Sacchetti April 6 at 1:27 PM

Federal officials arrested 97 immigrants at a meat-processing plant in rural Tennessee on Thursday in what civil rights organizations said was the largest single workplace raid in a decade and a sign that the Trump administration is carrying out its plan to aggressively ramp up enforcement this year.

Ten people were arrested on federal immigration charges, one person was arrested on state charges and 86 immigrants were detained for being in the country illegally, Tammy Spicer, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement Friday. All of those arrested are suspected of being in the country illegally, she said. Immigration advocates said most were from Mexico.

The raid on Southeastern Provision in Bean Station, Tenn., follows arrests at 7-Eleven stores and other workplaces nationwide. Last year, the nation’s top immigration official said he had ordered agents to increase the number of work-site inspections and operations by “four or five times” this year, to turn off the job “magnets” that attract immigrants who are in the country illegally and punish employers who hire them.

The National Immigration Law Center and other immigrant advocates said the Tennessee raid was the largest since the George W. Bush administration and deployed many of the tactics of that era, with a surprise blitz of the factory and streets blocked by state and local authorities. ICE officials would not say where the raid ranked in terms of size.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/immigration/ice-raids-meatpacking-plant-in-rural-tennessee-more-than-95-immigrants-arrested/2018/04/06/4955a79a-39a6-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html

[GaryCnf]

1. Thank you for posting

The families are hiding in local churches. The local Catholic church sent out an offer of sanctuary before ICE had even left the scene.

This is butchery.

[rickford66]

2. And the owners and managers ?

[Kittycow]

4. E-verify is required by law in Tennessee for private employers

with over 50 employees. So did the workers in question all have foolproof forgeries of the required documents?

Or did the meat plant just say Screw it? Nobody around here will enforce it anyway? <<THIS

[snowybirdie]

3. Who will

Do the work? Empty plant means no profits! Too bad Tennessee

[dameatball]

5. Ask the California ag business how easy it will be to replace those chicken pluckers.

[pwb]

6. But the family that owns the plant are great americans? They go free?

To me they are the criminals and should be in jail.

[Leghorn21]

7. ICE raids Grainger County meatpacking plant amid charges owners avoided $2.5M in payroll taxes

Federal agents raided a Bean Station, Tennessee slaughterhouse Thursday after a months-long probe into allegations the owners were paying undocumented immigrants cash to avoid paying $2.5 million in payroll taxes in three years, federal court records show.

Agents raided Southeastern Provisions, a cattle slaughterhouse on Helton Road in Grainger County, as part of a probe into myriad claims of tax evasion and fraud involving millions of dollars in unpaid taxes in a scheme that could stretch back a decade.

IRS Criminal Investigation Agent Nicholas R. Worsham wrote in a search warrant affidavit that James Brantley and his wife, Pamela Brantley, who own the slaughterhouse and meat-packing firm, have been hiring undocumented immigrants since 2008 and hiding it from the IRS.

Worsham also alleges the Brantleys used their daughter and other employees in their fraud, lied to the IRS about how much they paid themselves and American employees, filed false tax returns and exploited its largely Hispanic and undocumented work force.

more:
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2018/04/05/ice-raids-meatpacking-plant-grainger-county/490673002/

[beveeheart]

8. All I want to know is are the owners Republican?

[SoCalNative]

9. In Tennessee?

That would be a good bet.