Rape investigators discover large group of mestizo* immigrants
NASHVILLE, Tenn. A group of 11 immigrants from Mexico is suing the Maury County Sheriff’s Department, claiming they were illegally detained because of their “Hispanic appearance.”
The sheriff’s department _ working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is also named in the suit _ has arrested dozens of suspected illegal immigrants in recent months. Most of those arrested were not charged with any crimes other than being illegally in the country. Because of that, immigrants rights advocates have accused the sheriff’s department of racial profiling.
Sheriff Enoch George, who did not immediately return a call Tuesday, said previously that the arrests were made legitimately during criminal investigations in the county about 40 miles south of Nashville. County Attorney William Dale said he had not yet seen the suit and could not comment on it.
The suit was filed last Thursday in U.S. District Court after about 19 immigrants were arrested two days earlier while deputies and agents searched for a rape suspect in a trailer park.
According to the suit, those arrested were stopped without cause. In some cases, authorities entered the immigrants’ homes without warrants and without being invited in. One man was found asleep in hisbed. All were asked for “papers” and detained when they could not produce proof of legal residency, the suit states.
The attorney who filed the lawsuit, Elliott Ozment, declined to say whether those arrested were legally in the country, saying it has no relevance to the lawsuit.
“Any person, regardless of their legal status, whether they are U.S. citizens, temporary visa holders or undocumented … have basic, fundamental, constitutional rights,” Ozment said. “One of those is the right guaranteed in the Fourth Amendment against improper searches and seizures. The other is the right to due process.”
The lawsuit seeks that the defendants be enjoined from further stops, searches and seizures like the one last week; it asks that the plaintiffs not be given over to federal immigration custody and their removal not be pursued; and it requests damages of $100 per plaintiff per day for each day they spend in jail.
A spokeswoman for ICE, Barbara Gonzalez, said it is the agency’s policy not to comment on pending litigation.