A coalition of teams sued the Division of Homeland Safety on Wednesday, alleging that ICE and different federal businesses are unlawfully arresting immigrants in New York solely over their race or ethnicity.
The coalition, which incorporates the New York American Civil Liberties Union, Make the Highway New York and the Authorized Support Society, filed the category motion swimsuit within the Jap District of New York on behalf of eight immigrants across the state who had been allegedly arrested and detained with out possible trigger.
“ICE is profiling and arresting Black and Brown New Yorkers primarily based solely on their look. That is an egregious violation of their civil rights that has brought about worry and panic to ripple all through New York’s immigrant communities,” Meghna Philip, Director of the Particular Litigation Unit at The Authorized Support Society, stated in an announcement.
The plaintiffs embody Juan Carlos Quintero, who was arrested whereas watching a recreation of dominos in Staten Island. The 41-year outdated was surrounded by federal brokers in three unmarked vehicles and handcuffed after he stated he didn’t have an ID on him.
In one other incident, a 36-year-old Hispanic man was arrested getting into his house constructing in Bushwick, Brooklyn, whereas coming house from work. In a 3rd incident described within the lawsuit, a 24-year-old Hispanic man and a graduate of the Metropolis College of New York was arrested on his solution to the Lengthy Island Rail Highway in Hempstead.
All three have been launched from federal custody after attorneys filed emergency lawsuits difficult their arrests.
“DHS brokers routinely cease Latinos for no different purpose than their look and the language they’re talking,” the swimsuit stated.
Homeland Safety stated it arrests individuals on the idea of affordable suspicion, in line with the Fourth Modification’s safety towards unreasonable searches and seizures. “Any allegations ICE regulation enforcement engages in racial profiling are FALSE,” a DHS spokesperson stated in an announcement.
The new lawsuit cites THE CITY’s reporting final fall describing an uptick in avenue arrests in addition to THE CITY’s story this month which discovered that 800 New Yorkers who weren’t an supposed goal of immigration officers had been arrested right here between October and March. In 85% of those circumstances, the individuals detained had no prior prison document.
Final September, U.S. Supreme Court docket Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a 2025 concurring opinion to an emergency order that federal immigration officers could use components akin to language, ethnicity or work as one think about figuring out whether or not somebody is within the nation with out authorization — although not as the one issue.
The order was in response to a swimsuit the ACLU filed towards immigration officers for improperly utilizing race whereas focusing on Dwelling Depots in immigration raids in Los Angeles final summer season.
The ruling has led some to dub the road arrests by federal brokers as “Kavanaugh stops,” and is credited with empowering immigration officers to proceed utilizing race as a think about arrests.
