Grainger Co plant owner agrees to plead guilty to charges from April ICE raid

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Posted: Aug 17, 2018 06:50 AM EDT
Updated: Aug 17, 2018 06:15 PM EDT

Source: WATE

BEAN STATION, Tenn. (WATE) - A Grainger County business owner has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an April immigration raid at his business.

James Brantley, owner of the Southeastern Provisions meat-packing plant in Bean Station, pleaded guilty to two counts of failure to collect taxes, one count of employing illegal aliens and one count of wire fraud.

Brantley will also pay $1,296,183 in restitution to the IRS and $127,405 to BerkleyNet.

In April, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division and the Tennessee Highway Patrol were all on hand at Southeastern Provision for a federal criminal search warrant execution that lead to an immigration investigation.

During the raid on Southeastern Provision in Bean Station, 97 people were found who were subject to removal from the United States.

Ten of those were arrested on federal criminal charges, one on state charges and 86 on administrative charges. Of the 86 administrative arrests, 54 were placed in detention and 32 were released.

A search warrant affidavit obtained by WATE 6 On Your Side revealed that federal authorities were tipped off by bank employees about large cash withdrawals from Citizens Bank in Morristown made by employees of Southeastern Provisions.

An investigation revealed that James Brantley and his wife Pamela Brantley, along with their daughter Kelsey Brantley and Priscilla Keck, an employee, were withdrawing cash to pay employees at the slaughterhouse.

Investigators say $25 million in cash was withdrawn from the bank accounts beginning in 2008.

Information on Brantley's sentencing hearing has not yet been released.

KC Cuberson-Alvarado chairs Hola Lakeway, a non-profit which works to bridge the gap between the Hispanic and Lakeway communities. The group provides resources to immigrant families, from gas money to groceries.

On the plea, she says "Brantley can feel a little bit of the weight that the families are feeling," and calls this justice.

Aside from unlawfully employing undocumented workers and withholding tax revenue from their wages, Alvarado also alleges Brantley mistreated employees by overseeing an unsafe work environment and paying unfair wages to the workers.

While she says Brantley had good intentions by hiring undocumented people, she says he should pay the price for not following proper procedures in certain areas. She also believes as a business owner, Brantley, could have brought real change by advocating on their behalf to lawmakers. She thinks explaining a need for them in his industry would have ultimately cut back some of the red tape and allowed the 97 workers removed in April to obtain work visas.

She says the surrounding communities are still feeling the impact of the raid. While she explains there aren't necessarily fewer Latino students in the schools, many students are having to switch school districts to be raised by extended families.

"We're still dealing with the remnants of it. We have families like have lost their homes. We have families that have lost their spouse. So, their spouse has been deported or detained and haven't received bond yet. We have people moving to Texas and Florida so they can live with their mothers and fathers and help take care of their children."

Today, the meat-packing facility looks to be back to normal, but Alvarado thinks it will take much longer for the people she works with to feel normal.

Stephanie Teatro, co-executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), reacted in a statement:
“We are glad that Mr. Brantley is finally being held accountable for some of his egregious employment practices. But these charges could have been brought by the federal government and a plea deal reached without bringing in armed ICE agents into the town and ripping 97 hard-working members of the community from their families. In the four months since the raid, we’ve worked alongside the 97 families who had been the only ones to suffer any consequences from the investigation. The families are still struggling to recover from the devastation of the raid, including many whose loved ones are still being held in detention or who have already been shipped out of the country. By conducting mass worksite raids in Tennessee, Ohio, and Nebraska, the government is instilling fear in workers and making them less likely to report the kind of egregious working conditions that persisted at Southeastern Provision.”

According to TIRRC, this is the status of the meat-packing workers following ICE raid:

  • 97 arrested in April raid
  • 32 released soon after
  • 54 sent to Louisiana
  • 38 of those sent to LA released on bond
  • 11 signed voluntary departure forms
  • Six still in ICE custody
  • 10 still in federal custody


https://www.wate.com/news/local-news/business-owner-pleads-guilty-to-charges-from-april-ice-raid-in-grainger-county/1377812060