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Illegal Aliens Arrested in Workplace Raid Sue Fed Agents for Racial Profiling
Judicial Watch ^ | February 22, 2019

Posted on 02/22/2019 2:31:18 PM PST by jazusamo

Represented by an extremist nonprofit that lists conservative organizations on a catalogue of “hate groups,” seven illegal immigrants detained in a workplace raid are suing the federal agents that arrested them, claiming that they were racially profiled for being Latino. In a federal court complaint filed this week by their pro bono attorneys at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the illegal aliens assert that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents violated their Constitutional rights against illegal seizures and to equal protection under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The raid occurred last spring at a slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant in a small rural town called Bean Station in east Tennessee. Agents from ICE and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) raided the facility as part of a lengthy investigation into the owner’s multi-million-dollar tax evasion and fraud scheme. About 100 illegal aliens were arrested, most of them from Guatemala and Mexico and some had been previously deported from the U.S. more than once. At least 54 people were deported immediately, some were released and others faced federal or state charges, according to a local news report following the seize.

The owner of the business, James Brantley, eventually pled guilty to multiple federal crimes, including tax fraud, wire fraud, and employment of unauthorized illegal aliens. The feds say he avoided paying nearly $1.3 million in taxes by hiring at least 150 illegal aliens and paying them off the books in cash. The scheme began in 1988 and continued through 2018 when he got busted. Brantley had reported to the IRS that he had only 44 wage-earning employees, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). To avoid Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax obligations, unemployment insurance premiums, unemployment tax and workers’ compensation insurance premiums he paid illegal immigrants in cash at a rate of $8-$10 per hour.

The feds said it was a criminal investigation from day one, not simply an immigration enforcement action as many open borders activists alleged. “Tax fraud is an outrage to hard-working Americans directly harmed when criminals cheat their obligation to society by failing to pay their fair share, and the employment of illegal workers also poses a serious threat to public safety as the use of fraudulent identity documents exposes Americans to potential identity theft and other financial harm,” said the special agent from ICE Homeland Security Investigations who led the probe.

Leftist groups went ballistic, asserting that illegal immigrants were victims whose “rights” were violated by the federal government. Outraged, the SPLC called it the largest workplace immigration raid since the George W. Bush administration. “What happened on April 5, 2018 was law enforcement overreach, plain and simple,” said the group’s senior supervising attorney Meredith Stewart. “We, as a nation, have a shared set of ideals, rooted in the Bill of Rights: We have a right to be free of racial profiling and unlawful arrests. If we are not willing to uphold those ideals for everyone in this country, then we are all at risk of losing our rights.” In the complaint, SPLC attorneys write that the federal officers conspired to plan and execute the forceful and prolonged seizure of the meatpacking plant’s Latino workforce solely on the basis of their actual or apparent race or ethnicity.

The defendants are nine ICE agents who are accused of using “brutal and excessive force without any provocation.” They cursed, shoved and punched workers, according to the SPLC complaint. A Tennessee group that’s helping in the case says the lawsuit addresses the brutality the workers faced at the hands of agents. The nonprofit, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), claims the workplace raid was an “unconscionable abuse of power” with “human costs.” The SPLC, an Obama-tied leftist group that helped a gunman commit an act of terrorism against a conservative organization, has the lead in the case. A few years ago a gunman received a 25-year prison sentence for carrying out the politically-motivated shooting of the Family Research Council (FRC) headquarters after admitting that he learned about the FRC from the SPLC “hate map.” Prosecutors called it an act of terrorism and recommended a 45-year sentence.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: aliens; ice; illegalaliens; jamesbrantley; judicialwatch; jw; splc; tennessee
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So the infamous SPLC accuses ICE agents of breaking the law while legally enforcing immigration laws.
1 posted on 02/22/2019 2:31:18 PM PST by jazusamo
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To: jazusamo

I am sick of illegals. All of them. They all need to go.


2 posted on 02/22/2019 2:33:36 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: GOPJ; Diana in Wisconsin; ColdOne; Art in Idaho; Conservative Gato; ptsal; onyx; Tucker39; ...

Off the Wall Ping!

Contact to be added.


3 posted on 02/22/2019 2:33:40 PM PST by jazusamo (Have You Donated to Keep Free Republic Up and Running?)
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To: Secret Agent Man

I couldn’t agree more and the commie activist illegal alien groups need to go along with them.


4 posted on 02/22/2019 2:35:50 PM PST by jazusamo (Have You Donated to Keep Free Republic Up and Running?)
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To: Secret Agent Man

“I am sick of illegals. All of them. They all need to go.”

Oh sure. And then what is California supposed to do with all of the resulting vacant housing and unspent tax money?

Who exactly will take up the slack and spray the graffiti that Americans won’t spray anymore?


5 posted on 02/22/2019 2:37:35 PM PST by Pelham (Secure Voter ID. Mexico has it, because unlike us they take voting seriously)
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To: jazusamo

Illegal alien is not a race.


6 posted on 02/22/2019 2:38:28 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Capitalism produces EVERYTHING Socialists/Communists/Democratic-Socialists wish to "redistribute.")
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To: jazusamo

Es stupido!..................


7 posted on 02/22/2019 2:38:55 PM PST by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: jazusamo; All

“Fat, Drunk and ILLEGAL is no way to go through life, Son!” ~ Dean Wormer

;)


8 posted on 02/22/2019 2:38:57 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin ( "Why can't you be more like Lloyd Braun?")
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To: jazusamo

The judge should dismiss this case immediately and fine the plaintiffs’ attorneys for contempt of court. Better yet, put them in jail for 30 days.


9 posted on 02/22/2019 2:39:10 PM PST by DeFault User
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To: jazusamo

Yep sue them for being in the USA illegally while all this
suing is going on. Meantime take them to the Rio Grande
and let them wade across and tell them their prison time
starts when they come north of the Rio Grande again.


10 posted on 02/22/2019 2:40:03 PM PST by deport
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To: jazusamo
The owner of the business, James Brantley

Profits regardless of consequences...

All so people like Jame Brantley can stuff more money in his pockets. Traitorous yellow bile eater he is.

11 posted on 02/22/2019 2:40:26 PM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: TADSLOS; Tennessee Nana

p


12 posted on 02/22/2019 2:41:06 PM PST by Liz ( Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Illegal alien is not a race.

**********

They are when the cops are chasing them.....


13 posted on 02/22/2019 2:41:18 PM PST by deport
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To: Pelham; All

“Who exactly will take up the slack and spray the graffiti that Americans won’t spray anymore?”

Gosh! It sure would be keen if all of our Towns & Cities looked like the sets in ‘Leave It To Beaver,’ wouldn’t it Wally?

I could EASILY live with that! :)

P.S. You kids get off my lawn! ;)


14 posted on 02/22/2019 2:41:35 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin ( "Why can't you be more like Lloyd Braun?")
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Right on! :^)


15 posted on 02/22/2019 2:42:13 PM PST by jazusamo (Have You Donated to Keep Free Republic Up and Running?)
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To: jazusamo

Taxpayers should do a class action against SPLC, for wasting our money, defamation, libel, slander, child endangerment. Sue them out of existence.


16 posted on 02/22/2019 2:42:27 PM PST by polymuser (It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged today. - Chesterton)
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MAGA!

Let’s wrap this Freepathon up, Folks!

Please bump the Freepathon or click above to donate or become a monthly donor!

17 posted on 02/22/2019 2:44:29 PM PST by jazusamo (Have You Donated to Keep Free Republic Up and Running?)
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To: jazusamo
What do you call a bus load of lawyers going over a cliff?
18 posted on 02/22/2019 2:45:30 PM PST by liberalh8ter (The only difference between flash mob 'urban yutes' and U.S. politicians is the hoodies.)
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To: jazusamo

Remember, they aren’t here to pick our fruits & vegetables.

They are here to PICK OUR POCKETS!


19 posted on 02/22/2019 2:46:06 PM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: jazusamo

When I saw this I first thought it was satire from the Babylon Bee. Unreal.


20 posted on 02/22/2019 2:48:11 PM PST by gattaca ("Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan)
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