BEAN STATION, Tenn. — Officials with the Southern Poverty Law Center said that a settlement was reached in a lawsuit against the Southeastern Provision Plant over unpaid wages, after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at the facility.
The plant agreed to pay workers more than $600,000 in unpaid wages and other damages. As part of the other damages, workers will be paid double the amount of stolen wages, according to officials with the SPLC.
The SPLC, the National Immigration Law Center, attorneys Eben P. Colby, Jeremy Berman, Arthur Bookout and the law firm of Sherrard, Roe, Voigt & Harbison filed the lawsuit against the meatpacking plant in February 2019 on behalf of 7 people and a class of workers detained during an immigration raid in April 2018.
During the raid, ICE officials detained approximately 100 Latino workers, officials with SPLC said. The officials also said the raid violated the workers' rights against illegal seizures and to equal protection under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.
It was the largest immigration raid in nearly a decade. A documentary was released on Netflix about the emotional fallout after the raid. Two brothers who worked for the plant's owner also pled guilty to hiring undocumented workers in June 2019.