Immigration Lawsuit Claiming Racial Profiling in Immigration Raids in Georgia

Federal immigration agents conducted illegal searches and relied on racial and ethnic profiling while carrying out a massive series of raids that terrorized residents of several towns in southeast Georgia in early September, according to a federal lawsuit filed today by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  The series of raids across several towns in at least three counties began on September 1 and lasted for several weeks. The raids, involving dozens of ICE agents, were ostensibly intended to locate undocumented immigrants who worked at a poultry plant in Stillmore, a town of about 1,000 people in Emanuel County. But rather than conduct a raid only at the plant, the agents fanned out across residential areas — stopping motorists, breaking into people’s homes and threatening people with tear gas and guns. Hundreds of people were terrorized. Many actually fled into the woods. “These kinds of dragnet tactics are completely inconsistent with our constitutional guarantees,” said Mary Bauer, director of the Center’s Immigrant Justice Project and attorney for the plaintiffs. “Just because you are poor and have brown skin doesn’t mean you don’t have rights under the law. We want to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Click here for details.

KJ