Sunday, July 29, 2007

More Lawsuits Challenging ICE's Widespread Illegal Searches

There are even more developments in lawsuits against widespread Fourth Amendment violations by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) around the United States. These lawsuits are extremely significant because under the Supreme Court decision in Lopez-Mendoza, suppression motions in immigration court might be granted for all Fourth Amendment violations if there is proof of widespread Fourth Amendment violations by the immigration authorities. News stories of widespread illegal surveillance along with numerous lawsuits about widespread illegal ICE searches suggest that now may be the time to require suppression of evidence in immigration court for all Fourth Amendment violations. The Third Circuit in Philadelphia is currently reviewing an appeal of this legal issue and other cases raising this issue have been filed in immigration courts in New Jersey.

The latest news on lawsuits against ICE include:
  • 33 more plaintiffs added to the Minnesota lawsuit against ICE and local police for widespread Fourth Amendment violations during illegal searches in April.
  • A new lawsuit in Tennessee against ICE and the Maury County sheriff for a series of illegal raids in May and July 2007 for illegal ICE searches in people's homes using the pretext of searching for a Latino suspect. According to the lawsuit, ICE would bang on doors and once someone inside opened the door the slightest bit, ICE would barge in and essentially arrest everyone by confronting people and demanding papers from them.

2 Comments:

At 11:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Do you happen to have the citations for these cases? Thanks, and good work bringing this information to light.

 
At 10:13 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here are the citations to some lawsuits:

Aguilar v. ICE, 07-CV-10471 (D. Mass. filed Mar. 8, 2007).

Valenzuela v. Swift, 06-CV-2322 (N.D. Tex. filed Dec. 15, 2006).

Yarrito v. Meyers, 06-CV-2494 (D. Colo. filed Dec. 13, 2006).

Swift v. ICE, 06-CV-314 (N.D. Tex. filed Nov. 28, 2006).

Reyes v. Alcantar, 07-02271 (N.D. Cal. filed Apr. 26, 2007).

Arias v. ICE, 07-01959 (D. Minn. filed Apr. 19, 2007).

There is great information on these at the AILF web site. I am also aware of others that either have been filed or that are being prepared, but I do not have clear permission to disclose those details. But there are more lawsuits out there or about to be filed!

 

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