Southeastern Provisions is a cattle slaughterhouse and meat-packing facility that began operations under the ownership of James Brantley. It is one of the largest sources of employment in Grainger County. The plant was under investigation a year previous to the raid by the IRS after the agency hearing reports from local banking officials stating that Brantley was making weekly withdrawals of $100,000 to make in cash payroll for workers. Reports have suggested that Brantley hired an estimated amount of 150 undocumented workers in an attempt to reduce business expenses as much as possible. In May 2017, federal agents placed an informant to work at the facility. The individual was hired without documentation and was paid in cash. The informant had observed harsh working conditions such as workers handling hazardous materials with no personal protective equipment and another losing several fingers while operating an electric saw. A month prior the raid, Southeastern Provision's septic system had failed, causing waste to disperse into groundwater in the surrounding area, contaminating several wells used by numerous households.
The raid
On April 5, 2018, a federal search warrant executed by the IRS, ICE and the Tennessee Highway Patrol had the agencies raid Southeastern Provisions around 9:00 a.m. Federal agents had discovered 104 undocumented workers employed at the facility, detaining 86 and arresting 11. IRS officials had obtained information concluding that James Brantley had paid the undocumented workers at a rate of $8–10 dollars an hour, with no extra pay for overtime. Law enforcement officials had surrounded the perimeter of the plant's complex, blocking every exit and then flooded the plant with armed officers telling those inside to freeze. Reymunda Lopez, one of the detained plant workers, described the raid as very hostile situatuion: Those detained were sent to await further instructions at a National Guard center in Morristown in neighboring Hamblen County.
Aftermath
In the immediate aftermath of the immigration raid, over 500 Hispanic students in the neighboring city of Morristown skipped school the following day in fear of being deported along with several arrested at Southeastern Provisions. Many churches and non-profit organizations in the Morristown-Hamblen area had planned together activities for those who had family or friends involved in the raid. An estimated crowd of 300 individuals led a protest against ICE and the Trump administration, which had then recently planned the raids of workplaces across the United States. In September 2018, James Brantley was found guilty of multiple state and federal crimes, including tax evasion, wire fraud, employing immigrants not authorized to work in the US, and many other workplace violations, and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and was forced to pay over 1.3 million dollars to the IRS, and 1.42 million in restitution. In 2019, many of the workers that had been detained and later released had filed a lawsuit against ICE with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Immigration Law Center on their behalf. On July 6, 2020, James Brantley filed and signed a consent order agreeing to shell out an estimated $610,000 dollars in a three-year period in pay to 150 current and former workers of Southeastern Provisions, most of whom are Hispanic. The United States Department of Labor sued Brantley for failing to properly compensate workers at the slaughterhouse.
In film
The consequences of the raid for undocumented workers, their families and members of the impacted communities, were documented in After the Raid, a 2019 documentary film by film director Rodrigo Reyes. The film was released on the streaming platformNetflix.
