Illegal Immigrants Sue Sheriff's Department in Tennessee
Claim Constitutional Rights Violated
By Sundance McGee
Published Oct 12, 2007

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... tment.html

The federal government could take a page or two out of the playbook of elected officials in Maury County, Tennessee, when it comes to dealing with illegal immigrants. The Maury County Sheriff's Department has taken over 90 suspected illegal immigrants into custody in the past four months. Most recently they assisted agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they detained six suspected illegal immigrants after a local construction contractor reported they used false documents to obtain employment with his company. This is the first multiple arrest of suspected illegal aliens in Maury County since the Sheriff's Department was sued in federal court in July for violating the Constitutional rights of suspected illegal aliens.

The lawsuit, filed July 5th by Nashville Immigration Attorney Elliott Ozment, arose from several incidents in May, June and July in which deputies allegedly violated 14 illegal immigrant's Constitutional rights. Sean Lewis, a Nashville Immigration Attorney told the Columbia Daily Herald, "Those rights include the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution." Also named in the original lawsuit were several agents from ICE, as well as Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. The charges against three ICE administrators and Chertoff were dismissed in September.

The resident in charge of ICE operations in Maury County, Special Agent Jonathon A. Hendrix, in a sworn affidavit said that he "did not participate in any raid, stop, search, seizure, interrogation, detainment or arrest that was illegal." "Nor did I conspire to do so with anyone else," Hendrix says in the affidavit.

ICE agents and the Sheriff's Department began working together in May after a 14-year-old boy was caught with a handgun at Whitthorne Middle School. They were looking for a man named "Enrique" who allegedly gave the gun to the boy.

Testimony from the boy's mother led to the arrest of 24 other people who were believed to be in the country illegally.






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Comments - 4 total

10/12/2007
Alyce Rocco: Okay, they said it before me: how can a non-Citizen have Constitutional rights? As a born citizen, if I falsified records I would face a whole slew of charges, including Income Tax evasion. (if the Federal Income tax is actually legal is a different topic) I think the USA government needs to send a bill to the country from which they came and charge them for the cost of the trials. Incredible; that law-abiding citizens are being charged (via taxes) to pay for criminals complaints.


10/12/2007
Laura Brady: !!!??? They don't have Constitutional Rights in this country because they are illegal! This is just crazy. It's also irresponsible for these lawyers to latch onto anything they can in order to get a piece of a settlement. Arrrghhhh.


10/12/2007
rebekah o'neal: um...since when does someone here illegally have constitutional rights????? and who cares if they're being caught? if they want to be here, apply for citizenship, otherwise, get out.

Campbell
10/12/2007
Illegals do not have Constitutional rights.