Administration Criminalizes Immigrants with Tennessee Raid
Washington – Yesterday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division and the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) carried out an immigration raid at a meat packing plant in Grainger County, Tennessee, resulting in administrative arrests and detainment for more than 100 immigrant workers.
Advancement Project’s National Office, a racial justice organization, issued the following statement:
“This collective effort of raiding, arresting and detaining is nothing shy of the Administration’s ongoing efforts to selectively target immigrants of color in an attempted racial purge and dehumanize people who are supporting our economy,” said Executive Director of Advancement Project’s National Office Judith Browne Dianis. “In just a matter of hours, families were separated, children were in an instant cut off from their parents, and rights that are woven into the fabric of our nation’s character were trampled. The Administration continues to criminalize our immigrant communities at all costs. This can’t go on.”
With more than 100 people being detained, people, including parents of young children, were reportedly unable to pick up their students from school. Further, this unnecessary action is likely impacting more than 10 percent of the Bean Station community, including the meat packing factory, local businesses relying on their partnership with them, and residents that work in farming and rely on food from these businesses.
“No one benefits from the selective targeting and detaining of immigrants of color except for those in support of or comfortable with diminishing racial diversity in America. These families must be reunited at once and we must ensure that individuals affected by this raid have their constitutional rights protected,” continued Browne Dianis.
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