Hearing on Swift Plant Immigration Raid Lawsuit

After the massive immigration raid at the Worthington, MN Swift & Co. plant in December 2006, several Latino workers with work authorization filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security alleging violations of their Constitutional rights, such as racial profiling and unlawful detention.

The U.S. Federal government has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Arguments for and against the motion will be heard on Friday, February 13th. The plaintiffs are represented by local nonprofit law office Centro Legal and local law firm Gray Plant Mooty.

This case and the motion to dismiss it foreground issues of racial profiling and racism against Latinos in Minnesota.

The plaintiffs, who are all either U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, or immigrants with valid work authorization, were working at the Worthington plant when it was raided. According to the lawsuit, they were detained and searched or interrogated without being advised of their constitutional rights. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents "insulted, abused and humiliated the plaintiffs on account of their race," the lawsuit alleges, as well as forcing female workers to undress in front of ICE agents.

In a 2007 interview on Democracy Now, former Centro Legal director Gloria Contreras-Edin pointed out, "What's important to recognize in this particular case is that this really wasn't a typical immigration raid. This was a part of a criminal investigation that the government had been conducting for possibly over a year....whenever you're part of a criminal investigation—now, I'm not a criminal lawyer, but I know enough to say that when you're part of a criminal investigation, you're afforded certain protections. You're afforded the protection [from] an unreasonable detention. You're also afforded the protection to have the right to remain silent, the right to counsel. You're also afforded the protection to be able to speak to an attorney if an attorney is available to you. In all these situation and across the country, people were not afforded these rights."

By email, Centro Legal attorney Rachel Bengtson, expands ,"In a criminal raid, the authorities have to satisfy a judge that they have probable cause to believe a certain indivicdual has committed a certain crime in order to get a search or arrest warrant, and when they get that, they may only arrest the person named and search for the items named. (Of course, if they see someone else commit a crime, they can be arrested, or if other evidence of a crime is in plain view, they can seize that.) In the Swift raid, authorities planned to make some criminal arrests, but did not get a criminal arrest or search warrant. For an administrative search warrant, there is no need to list the names of suspected undocumented immigrants, nor for administrative arrest warrants to issue prior to the actual arrests. But, the limitation is that the immigration officers may only question people known to be aliens or believed to be aliens. That belief must be reasonable based on the totality of the circumstances, and supported by specific and articulable facts. What ICE did was use an administrative warrant to conduct both an immigration raid and a criminal investigation, while failing to follow rules like Miranda that apply during a criminal investigation."

Describing the racial profiling aspect of the case to Democracy Now in 2007, Contreras-Edin said, "It's important to recognize here that people who did not look Latino were allowed to roam freely throughout the plant, and so those who were Latino, even if you were a citizen or a resident, were required to prove that they were here lawfully. Now, I personally can't prove that I'm a US citizen. I wouldn't know how to do it. But in this case they required everyone to do it upon the threat of deportation and removal."

Discussing the implications of this lawsuit, Bengtson emails, "...the court will be forced to decide the question of whether it is reasonable for Immigration agents to rely on a person's Latino appearance (skin, hair, and eye color + speaking Spanish or speaking English with a Spanish accent) alone for a "reasonable" belief that the person is an alien (i.e. NOT a U.S. citizen). Centro Legal believes that U.S. Citizens from Puerto Rico and others with Latino heritage, who, as U.S. Citizens, have the right to live and work anywhere in the United States, should be protected from racial discrimination of this type. Unfortunately, U.S. Citizens and immigrants with lawful permission to live and work in Minnesota have faced increased discrimination and violence because of their ethnicity in recent years, both in Minnesota and throughout the country."

The lawsuit asks for injunctive, declaratory and monetary damages, asking the Federal government to stop the practices named in the lawsuit and that the court formally declare that the practices are wrong and unconstitutional, as well as for financial restitution.

Centro Legal has also filed a lawsuit on on behalf of Latino residents in Willmar who allege that agents broke into their homes during an ICE raid in April 2007 and illegally detained them.