Mother's Day 'party' set for families touched by Bean Station immigration raid

Knoxville

One of the cards made by children of families affected by the April 5, 2018, immigration raid on the Southeastern Provision meatpacking plant in Bean Station, Tenn.

The families of nearly 100 undocumented workers detained in the largest federal immigration raid in a decade plan to mark Mother's Day early at a rally in Morristown.

The Thursday event comes two days after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions praised the raid during an East Tennessee visit and promised to continue the crackdown across the country.

Organizers hope to highlight the women who've been acting as single mothers since April 5, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swept up 97 workers, mostly male, while serving a search warrant at the Southeastern Provision meat-packing plant in Bean Station, Tenn., in Grainger County. Plans call for a "party" to include cards and letters written to the detainees' children, most of whom were born in the U.S.

"Out of those 97 adults, 160 children had a parent arrested," said Stephanie Teatro, co-director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. "Dozens of mothers are single moms now."

Southeastern Provision, a cattle slaughterhouse in Bean Station, Tenn., was the target of a federal immigration raid that rounded up 97 people on April 5, 2018.

Hopes for Haslam visit

The event will be from 4-8 p.m. at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, 2518 West Andrew Johnson Highway, and will include food, games, raffles and a moment of silence for those detained.

Organizers say they've invited Gov. Bill Haslam to attend. A spokeswoman for the governor didn't immediately respond on whether he'll accept the invite.

Some of the families staged a demonstration at Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City last week when Haslam visited to deliver the spring commencement address. They left without the meeting they'd hoped for.

Gov. Bill Haslam walks through a crowd before the announcement of Belgian bus company Van Hool building a factory in Morristown, Tenn. and creating more than 600 jobs, Thursday, April 12, 2018.

Fate of the detained

A little more than 40 of those detained remain in custody in federal detention centers in Louisiana, Teatro said. They've been trickling back to East Tennessee over the past few weeks as some have been granted bond. A few could arrive today, Teatro said.

"One was a mom with three kids," she said. "We're very excited to have more of them coming home, but they're still in deportation proceedings."

The raid arose from an IRS probe of Southeastern Provision, whose owners, James and Pamela Brantley, failed to pay more than $2.5 million in payroll taxes over the past three years, according to federal court records. The plant on Helton Road had a history of violations of federal regulations.

James Brantley is the owner of a Grainger County slaughterhouse, Southeastern Provision, that was targeted in a federal immigration raid.

The owners face no charges so far and haven't offered any comment.

Ten of the workers at the plant had been deported before and face federal charges of illegally re-entering the U.S. One of those, Jose Roblero-Bravo, pleaded guilty earlier this month and faces sentencing in August. Two more, David Perez-Bartelon and Evelio Alejandro Bravo-Arreaga, have filed notice they'll plead guilty as well. The rest face trials this summer.