Immigrants File Class-Action Lawsuit to Stop ICE Courthouse Arrests
The lawsuit, filed by Democracy Forward and three other legal organizations on behalf of 12 immigrants, aims to stop the arrests at immigration courts, a contentious tactic that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency began using in May to increase deportations nationwide.
From New York to California, ICE agents have arrested immigrants appearing for routine proceedings at immigration courts, prompting criticism from Democrats and activists that ICE is unfairly targeting people who are following the rules by showing up to court. Federal agents, typically wearing masks, have become a mainstay in courthouse lobbies and hallways, where they have arrested scores of migrants who are leaving courtrooms and who are placed in expedited deportation proceedings that don't require hearings.
The lawsuit was filed in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of Justice, which oversees the immigration courts; the Department of Homeland Security; and ICE. Several officials at federal agencies also were sued.
The plaintiffs include 12 immigrants, identified only by pseudonyms, from Cuba, Ecuador, Guinea, Venezuela and elsewhere. Many had entered the country without authorization from 2021 to 2024 and had applied for asylum. They were arrested when they showed up at courthouses this year. Most are in detention — in New York, Pennsylvania and Texas — and fear persecution in their home countries, the lawsuit said.
One immigrant was deported to Ecuador less than a month after he was arrested in June.
'Noncitizens, including most of the individual plaintiffs here, have been abruptly ripped from their families, lives, homes and jobs for appearing in immigration court, a step required to enable them to proceed with their applications for permission to remain in this country,' the lawsuit says.
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Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Orange declines to take a stance on unmasking federal immigration agents
An emotional Orange City Council meeting ended Tuesday with a resolution that would have taken a stance against the use of face coverings by federal immigration agents failing to pass. Councilmembers Arianna Barrios and Ana Gutierrez, the first two Latinas elected to Orange City Council, passionately championed the effort in the wake of masked federal immigration agents making arrests in the city this summer. 'While it is perfectly clear to me that, legally, our council has no jurisdiction when it comes to the federal government's immigration enforcement, we do maintain the right as a sitting council to speak out against injustice,' Barrios said. Despite their own concerns over face masks worn by federal agents, a majority of the council members who voted to table the resolution cited the city's lack of legal authority to override the federal government as a factor in their decision. 'They don't have to listen to the city of Orange,' Councilmember Jon Dumitru said. 'In the end, it's a piece of paper that doesn't matter. Santa Ana even backed away from passing a resolution like this.' The proposed resolution did not mark the first time Orange City Council tried to weigh in on immigration in a non-binding way. In 2010, Dumitru himself introduced a pair of immigration-related resolutions, including one that effectively declared Orange a 'Rule of Law' city and claimed that undocumented immigrants burdened services and resources at the time. A handful of pro-immigrant activists derided the council's approval of that resolution by presenting a satirical 'ruled by clowns' resolution of their own to the city. This time around, critics of roving patrols by masked federal immigration agents packed council chambers after a short march from the Orange Circle. 'I've lived in Orange for 33 years and I'm a proud supporter of our fine law enforcement,' Paul Hudson said during the council meeting. 'I can't imagine any one of them ever wearing a mask and pulling me over. That's unfathomable.' John Reina, the sole resident to speak against the resolution, argued that it missed its unmasking mark. 'The real danger to us is the rioters who shoot firearms, throw rocks, toss fireworks and hurl concrete blocks and other items at our law enforcement, all the while wearing masks,' he said. 'Where is the outrage and resolution banning face coverings from people protesting in our streets?' Barrios argued that masked federal immigration agents set back efforts to build community trust in local law enforcement while opening the door for imposters to act nefariously. To drive home her point, Barrios held up a black vest and cap with 'security' embroidered on it that she bought from Amazon. 'I guarantee you, it's happening,' she said. 'There have been reports and people have been arrested as nearby as in Huntington Park, in terms of people impersonating ICE because of the way they're dressed, because of the masks.' Last month, Huntington Park police arrested a man they suspected of impersonating a Border Patrol agent after finding an unlicensed handgun, copies of U.S. Homeland Security removal notices and a list of U.S. Customs and Border Protection radio codes in his possession. In making her case, Gutierrez focused on a federal immigration sweep that occurred on July 1 near her El Modena neighborhood home. 'It's very hard to watch my community and my [ethnic group] being…racially profiled and treated in this matter,' she said. 'I don't feel safe, my children don't feel safe and many people in my community do not feel safe. This is very important. This is just one little line in the sand that we can draw say that we're here for our community.' Gutierrez also brought Orange Police Chief Adam Jevec into the discussion on policing and masks. 'We police differently,' Jevec said in response to Gutierrez. 'We're part of the community. The expectation of our community is that we are transparent and are held accountable. That's why we wear body-worn cameras, that's why we have reports, that's why we have uniforms, name badges and policies that represent that.' Jevec added that his officers cannot interfere with federal immigration enforcement actions but can report to such scenes to verify that imposters are not kidnapping people. Councilmember John Gyllenhammer supported the idea behind the resolution but had reservations about language outlining law enforcement protocol. Barrios responded by highlighting mask exceptions for SWAT teams and bomb squads. She also signaled a willingness to amend the resolution, but her council colleagues did not take her up on the offer. Mayor Dan Slater feared the resolution in any form would mislead the public into thinking Orange had any kind of authority over federal agencies. 'Regardless of we feel about this issue, I honestly don't think the federal government is going to listen to what the Orange City Council has to say,' he said. 'Santa Ana and L.A. are finding out the hard way that their efforts in this regard are being completely dismissed. In fact, they have been made targets. This issue belongs squarely at the feet of Congress and the courts.' Dumitru moved to table the resolution. Councilmembers Denis Bilodeau, Kathy Tavoularis and Slater voted alongside him in doing so. After the vote, Barrios vented her frustration, especially after a prior effort to put a 'Know Your Rights' page on the city's website did not win support. Two days after the council meeting, masked federal immigration agents appeared in Orange near North Highland Street. Residents sent Barrios photos and videos in alerting her to their presence, which amplified her frustrations. 'This was a Latino neighborhood filled with dense, low-income apartments,' Barrios told TimesOC. 'It underscores exactly what we were talking about at our council meeting.'
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘We don't deserve this.' Women held in limbo at ICE's downtown S.F. center awaiting bed space
Three women who were detained by federal immigration officers at court Wednesday were held overnight inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's downtown San Francisco field office and remained there Thursday afternoon because there were no available beds at migrant detention facilities, one of the women and her attorney told the Chronicle. The 27-year-old Colombian woman from San Jose said in an interview she was held overnight in a cell on the sixth floor of 630 Sansome St., along with two other women who were also detained on Wednesday afternoon at the U.S. Department of Justice's San Francisco Immigration Court. She described the room as a small space with a toilet, a bench, a thin mattress and a small window where she could see officers standing outside. ICE representatives did not immediately respond to questions about the woman's arrest and detention. The Chronicle is not naming her, per its anonymous source policy, due to her fears of retaliation. The women are among many immigrants who have been held at the San Francisco ICE field office in recent weeks while officials make arrangements to transfer people to detention centers, said Jessica Yamane, an immigration attorney with Pangea Legal Services and Santa Clara County's Rapid Response Network. Some have been held for days, she said, a source of additional trauma as they already face uncertainty over what will happen to them. Yamane said ICE representatives told her that the woman was being held at the field office because there were no available beds at migrant detention facilities. Detained migrants from the Bay Area are typically transferred to detention centers in Southern California. Immigration attorneys and advocates have reported overcrowding and deteriorating conditions at ICE detention facilities across the country. An ICE representative told NPR that 'some ICE facilities are experiencing temporary overcrowding due to recent increases in detention populations' and implementing measures to manage capacity. ICE typically places immigrants in holding cells in its field offices for a few hours at a time before transferring them elsewhere, but there have been reports of longer stays and overcrowding in these facilities as well. Yamane said the overnight detentions at the 630 Sansome St. building reminded her of when immigration officials used the upper floors of the building as a detention center for Chinese immigrants post-World War II. 'It's been the same mechanism of terror through detention that have broken people's spirits for generations,' she said. On Thursday afternoon in a cold visitation room, the Colombian woman told the Chronicle through a glass window that plainclothes ICE officers arrested her as she exited a courtroom at 100 Montgomery St. around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. An asylum seeker, the woman said she had just attended her first courthouse appointment, where the judge rescheduled her appointment for October because she didn't have an attorney. 'Everything was going well. I didn't see any risk because the judge gave me another date,' she said. Two men identified themselves as ICE agents, handcuffed her and walked out the building through a back door, she said. They forcefully pushed her into an unmarked car and told her they were taking her to the ICE field office, she said. 'They were hurting me,' she said, tears falling down her cheeks. 'I hadn't done anything wrong.' She was placed in a cell with two other women. During the interview with the Chronicle, an immigration official walked into the visitation room to drop off a meal — a bean and cheese burrito, a breakfast bar and bottled water. She said ICE officials have not told her where she will be sent. 'They're treating us like criminals,' she said. 'We don't deserve this treatment. We are just trying to do the right thing.' She said she flew to Mexico and crossed the U.S. border in December 2022, fleeing violence she experienced in her hometown of Bogota. In the U.S., she moved in with her boyfriend in San Jose and worked at a local restaurant and delivered food via UberEats with her partner. Their dream, she said, was to save enough money to open their own auto repair and body shop. 'It's a dream that I don't know will happen now,' she said.
CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
Many deportees face major challenges acclimating to new lives after leaving U.S.
Tijuana, Mexico — Just three miles across the U.S.-Mexico border from San Diego, deportees in Tijuana are starting a new life. Among them is Juan Carlos, an immigrant from Mexico who had lived in the U.S. for 19 years. On June 24, his construction crew stopped at a Home Depot in the City of Industry, California — near Los Angeles — to pick up supplies when he was cornered by federal immigration agents. "As soon as I saw them, I tried to run," said Juan Carlos, who lived in the U.S. for 19 years. and whose arrest was captured on cell phone video. He says he spent two weeks in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention before agreeing to sign deportation paperwork. "Los Angeles gave me many things," Juan Carlos told CBS News. "It gave me opportunities. It gave me another kind of life…I felt like I was home. But everything happens for a reason." Video of Juan Carlos' arrest was recorded and posted online by a young woman named Audree. She told CBS News she was shocked by the incident, but hoped posting the video would help his family. "What really got to me was I'm sure they had a gut feeling, maybe not to go out that day, but they needed the money," she said. CBS News has spoken to several undocumented immigrants who were arrested by ICE agents, and then after being deported, ended up in a country that they are now unfamiliar with. In January, the Mexican government announced they had set up shelters along the border with the U.S. preparing for a massive wave of deportees. One of the facilities, Flamingo's, used to be an event space. Pricila Rivas is a binational deportee coordinator for Al Otro Lado, the only nonprofit allowed into the Flamingo's facility. Rivas says the facility has a capacity of 3,000, but has only held about 100 people at a time. "It's like a processing station where folks are able to obtain a copy of their birth certificate and basic identity documents," Rivas explained. Rivas helps the newly-deported integrate into their new life in Mexico — offering guidance on applying for work, finding shelter, and getting in touch with loved ones. But she says not all deportees are being sent to sites where there are resources. "There's flights going to Tapachula, to the southern border of Mexico," Rivas said. "So I mean, what happens to the folks that are being deported to other places." Even as ICE agents get more aggressive with their tactics, the mass deportations President Trump promised haven't fully materialized. According to numbers obtained by CBS News this week, ICE is on track to record more than 300,000 removals in President Trump's first year back in office, which would be the highest tally since the Obama administration. However, that number is still well below the one million annual deportations which the Trump administration has targeted. The Department of Homeland Security has tracked over 13,000 self-deportations since the start of Mr. Trump's second term. One of those who chose to self-deport is Uliser, an immigrant from Cuba. At the age of 15, he fatally shot someone and spent the next 19 years in a U.S. prison before being released in 2024. He was issued a deportation order shortly after, and had been attending immigration check-ins regularly. But as immigration enforcement ramped up in the U.S., he worried he might be detained. And since Cuba is not accepting deportees, there was a risk he'd be sent elsewhere. "It was a high risk of me, of the United States sending me to Salvador or South Sudan," he says, " it was an easy choice… letting them send me to a country where I had, no, I didn't have the choice to go to or just deciding, coming over here to Mexico where I'm gonna have better opportunities in life." Of the estimated 100,000 people who were deported between Jan. 1 and June 24 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 70,583 were convicted criminals, according to an ICE document obtained by CBS News earlier this month. However, the data also shows that most of the documented infractions were traffic or immigration offenses. Less than 1% had murder convictions, the documents showed. Uliser says he feels remorse when stories like to admonish immigrants. "When I was in prison, I did a lot of reflection," Uliser told CBS News. "They use that excuse just to target the folks that are actually working and trying to have a better life." Uliser was able to train for a new career as a sales development representative in the months since his release. And he's hoping to be a support system for others starting over in Mexico. "There's a lot of people that are coming," he added. "They're going to be coming out from prison, even deported here to Mexico. And if I can be of help in any way I can, I'm going to continue to do the same thing in honor of my victim and his family." Others who were deported told CBS News they would like to come back to the U.S., but with tight restrictions, they worry the only way across the border would be illegal and Brennan and Camilo Montoya-Galvez contributed to this report.
