A US federal judge Monday approved a settlement for over $1 million in a class action lawsuit that involved a 2018 immigration raid on a Tennessee meat packing plant that led to the detainment of approximately 100 Latino workers. Under the settlement in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, members of the class action will receive a total of $550,000—which divided among the members is over $5,700 each. The settlement states that “the United States of America will [pay] $475,000.00” to the six named plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs, represented by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the Southern Poverty Law Center, argued that a 2018 immigration raid of the meat packing plant where they worked violated their civil rights and that the law enforcement agencies targeted the workers because of their ethnicity.

Following the announcement of the settlement, senior supervising attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center Meredith Stewart said, “Today, justice was served to the Latino workers, and their community, who took a stand against federal agents targeting them because of their ethnicity.” The NILC described the settlement as a “hard-fought win.” In the NILC’s full statement, Deputy Legal Director Michelle Lapointe said:

Nearly five years after the raid that tore apart families—but galvanized a community—the final approval of this class settlement is a milestone in the fight for justice. Our courageous plaintiffs and class members worked long hours in grueling conditions to provide food for this country. While the settlement cannot heal the wounds caused by the violent 2018 raid, we are pleased with this hard-fought vindication of their rights and the power of community organizing.

In 2019, the plaintiffs filed the lawsuit challenging the actions of agents from the Department of Homeland Security, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP). The plaintiffs filed their case after the listed authorities detained the immigrant workers, who worked for the Southeastern Provision meatpacking plant in Bean Station, Tennessee.

An August 2022 memorandum opinions stated law enforcement agents were at the meat packing plant due to a criminal investigation into the plant’s owner over potential tax fraud and financial misconduct. The officers had a search warrant, but the warrant was “for financial documents related to the alleged crimes of the Plant’s owner, James Brantley.” Still, authorities detained 104 Latino workers while Brantley and others–who were the focal point of the search warrant—were not arrested.

This case is believed to be the first class action settlement regarding an immigration raid on a business in the US.