'Devastation' in East Tennessee Following ICE Raid
April 6, 2018
Steven Hale
On the same day that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Spanish-language reporter Manuel Duran into custody in Memphis, the federal agency carried out a massive raid at a meatpacking plant in East Tennessee.
The Thursday raid is reportedly the largest workplace raid in a decade, and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition says it's "a clear violation of the law and basic, constitutional rights."
The Washington Post reports:Ten people were arrested on federal criminal 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 were in the country illegally, she said. Most were from Mexico.
The raid on Southeastern Provision in Grainger County, 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, a helicopter and streets blocked by state and local authorities. ICE officials would not say where the raid ranked in terms of size.
In a written statement issued this morning, TIRRC's co-executive director Stephanie Teatro said: “Our communities have lived under intense fear since the Trump administration began, and this raid — coupled with local law enforcement involvement — will send shockwaves across the country. The community has shown tremendous strength in the face of this brazen attack on its members: Churches have become sanctuaries for those who feel unsafe, community leaders are speaking out against the attack, and we will continue to fight for basic, Constitutional rights for all. No one — not even the president — can take those away.”
Speaking to the Scene by phone, from a church near the factory where volunteers have set up a support base, Teatro says, “The level of devastation cannot be overstated.”
“Many of these families, their father is all of a sudden gone," she says. "They need support with groceries, they need child care.”
TIRRC, which has done work in Nashville to help families prepare for immigration crackdowns, has directed supporters to a GoFundMe pagewhere donations can be made to support families affected by the raid.
Teatro says legal volunteers have been assisting family members with power-of-attorney documents, among others, to ensure that custody arrangements are in place for children. She says a legal response is forthcoming and that a coalition of organizations will "do everything in our power to bring these workers back to their families.”
Meanwhile in Memphis, Duran remains in ICE custody as of this writing, facing the threat of deportation. He was arrested while covering a protest earlier this week. The charges against him were dropped yesterday, but ICE agents were waiting for him upon his release.
TheCommercial Appeal reports that Duran is from El Salvador and had been living and working in Memphis for several years.
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