(Reuters) – Latino workers at a Tennessee meat processing plant have reached a $1.2 million settlement in a lawsuit over a 2018 immigration raid during which they have been “focused by federal brokers” due to their ethnicity, an immigration advocacy group mentioned on Monday.
About 100 workers who have been detained through the raid will obtain a complete of $550,000, the Nationwide Immigration Regulation Heart (NILC) mentioned.
The federal authorities will even pay $475,000 to 6 particular person plaintiffs to resolve claims together with extreme drive and illegal arrest underneath the Federal Tort Claims Act. The settlement contains $150,000 in attorneys charges and bills.
In February 2019, the NILC and a number of other non-profit teams filed a lawsuit alleging that armed U.S. Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) and Inside Income Service (IRS) officers “illegally focused” Latino workers within the raid, used extreme drive and made false arrests.
“Whereas the settlement can’t heal the injuries brought on by the violent 2018 raid, we’re happy with this hard-fought vindication of their rights and the facility of neighborhood organizing,” mentioned Michelle Lapointe, deputy authorized director at NILC.
The DHS and IRS didn’t instantly reply to requests from Reuters for remark exterior enterprise hours.
The settlement was accepted late on Monday within the U.S. District Court docket for the Japanese District of Tennessee.
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Modifying by Robert Birsel)
