Category Archives: Arrests/Searches & Seizures

Cervantes v. United States, et al.

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Cervantes v. United States, et al., No. 4:16-cv-00334-CKJ (D. Ariz., filed June 8, 2016) 

On June 8, 2016, Plaintiff, a teenage U.S. citizen, filed a law suit under Bivens, the Federal Tort Claim Act, and 42 U.S.C. 1983 seeking redress for seven hours of abusive and degrading searches and strip searches by Border Patrol agents.  The complaint alleges that Plaintiff was walking home after eating breakfast in Nogales, Sonora when a Border Patrol agent accused her of carrying drugs.  She was then directed to a detention room, handcuffed to a chair, sniffed by dogs, and strip-searched by female agents.   After no drugs were found, CBP agents brought her to Holy Cross Hospital, in handcuffs, where hospital staff subjected her to invasive pelvic and rectal exams while CBP agents observed.

On October 24, 2016, the Government filed their answer to the complaint.

On February 7, 2017, the government filed a motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s Bivens claims against Defendant Patrick F. Martinez, M.D. On February 21, 2017, Plaintiff filed a response to Defendant Martinez’s motion to dismiss. Subsequently, Defendant Martinez withdrew his motion to dismiss on February 28, 2017.

On November 10, 2017, Defendant Quantum Plus filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that Plaintiff erroneously brought a negligent hiring claim based solely on a Bivens action against an agent. Several days later, Defendant Holy Cross Hospital moved to join in Quantum Plus’ motion. On February 19, 2018, Defendant Martinez filed a separate motion for summary judgment, arguing that Plaintiff could not bring a Bivens action against him because he was privately employed and not acting under claim of federal authority at the time of the medical examination.

The court granted the motions on July 18, 2018, dismissing the complaint with prejudice. With respect to Quantum Plus and Holy Cross Hospitals’ motion, the court reasoned that Plaintiff could not hold Defendants liable on a negligent hiring, training, and supervision claim in a Bivens cause of action. Regarding Defendant Martinez’ motion, the court held that it may not impose Bivens liability because Plaintiff may pursue an alternate state court action.

Counsel: Brian Marchetti, Marchetti Law PLC and Matthew C. Davidson | Law Offices of Matthew C Davidson Limited

Arizona Interior Enforcement Complaint

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Arizona Interior Enforcement Complaint

In June 2016, the ACLU of Arizona filed a complaint on behalf of ten individuals with U.S. Department of Homeland Security oversight agencies and the Department of Justice demanding investigations into abuses arising from Border Patrol interior operations.

Most of the incidents described in the ACLU’s complaint arose in the course of Border Patrol checkpoint and “roving patrol” stops.  Several describe agents wrongfully detaining innocent residents for days in filthy, frigid, and overcrowded detention facilities.  Although these individuals were not charged with any crime or immigration violation, their property was confiscated and some had to pay thousands of dollars to recover a vehicle.

In other cases, residents describe facing constant surveillance and harassment on their own property, including frequent incursions by low-flying Border Patrol helicopters.

A copy of the ACLU complaint to CBP and DOJ is available here.

A district court case was filed but was dismissed on February 15, 2018.

Contact:  Mitra Ebadolahi| ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties| mebadolahi@aclusandiego.org

S.V. v. United States

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S.V. v. United States, 8:16-cv-00419 (D. Neb, filed Sept. 2, 2016)

In the middle of 2014, a 14-year-old U.S. citizen, whose parents were from Guatemala, was traveling back to the U.S. with her older sister when she was taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.

While she had been born in Florida, her family moved back to Guatemala shortly after her birth.  She lived there for the next 13 years.  However, as a result of increasingly horrific gang violence, her family’s poverty, and difficult circumstances in the home, she decided she needed to return to the country of her birth, the United States.

Upon arriving at the U.S. border and presenting a copy of her Florida birth certificate, she was shocked to be detained and accused of presenting a fake document.  After her arrest, CBP transferred her to what she called the “hielera” or “icebox.” She was held in federal custody for 44 days before finally being released into the custody of a family member living in Nebraska.

However, the Department of Homeland Security continued to insist for almost a year that this U.S. citizen child should be deported back to Guatemala, before the Immigration Court terminated her removal proceedings and concluded she is a U.S. citizen.

As a result of the ordeal, this child has experienced significant emotional distress.  She filed her FTCA administrative complaint on October 14, 2015 against CBP, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). On March 4, 2016, CBP responded by issuing a final denial of her complaint. On July 6, 2016, DHHS closed the complaint without a decision in light of CBP’s denial. Following these denials, she filed an FTCA lawsuit in the District of Nebraska on September 2, 2016.

On January 26, 2017, the United States filed an answer to the complaint. In June 2017 the parties reached a settlement agreement after the meet and confer process, in which the government agreed to award monetary damages in the amount of $40,000 as satisfaction for any and all injuries to person and property this child suffered.

On June 14, 2017, the court dismissed the action.

Counsel: Justice for Our Neighbors

Contact: Charles Shane Ellison | charles@jfon-ne.org | (402) 898-1349

Salem v. USA, et al.

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Salem v. USA, et al., No. 5:15-cv-02091-JGB-SP (C.D. Cal., filed Oct. 9, 2015)

Mr. Salem brought this damages case against the United States, the Los Angeles Fire Department, and unknown CBP officers. Mr. Salem is a U.S. citizen who is also a citizen of Egypt. An accomplished playwright, 75 year old Salem was at the Los Angeles airport to begin his annual trip to Egypt, where he taught a literature class as an adjunct professor at the University of Cairo. He passed through security without incident, handed over his boarding pass and entered the passenger bridge to board his plane. At that point he was pulled over by an officer he believes was with CBP, who asked to see his passport. When he asked why he had been singled out, he was immediately surrounded by three other officers who forcibly grabbed both of his arms. They searched his carry-on luggage and, after finding nothing objectionable, forcibly escorted him to an interrogation room. There he was questioned for several hours, during which time the officers forced his arm behind his back, breaking it in the process. After about 4 hours of questioning, he was released without being charged. He was in great pain, and a bone in his arm was visibly displaced.

Mr. Salem’s suit includes Bivens claims under the Fourth Amendment (unreasonable search and seizure and use of excessive force) and the Fifth Amendment (equal protection). It also includes FTCA claims for assault, battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and negligence.

Defendant United States of America filed an answer to the amended complaint on January 18, 2017. Defendant City of Los Angeles filed an answer to the amended complaint on February 9, 2017. Individual Defendants also filed answers to the amended complaint on February 2, 2017 and March 07, 2017. The parties have agreed to stipulations for the Plaintiff’s inspection of the premises where Mr. Salem’s detention took place, and the Court accordingly entered a protective order regarding the Plaintiff’s entry and inspection of the premises on March 15, 2017.

On April 21, 2017, the individual federal Defendants filed a motion to dismiss, which Plaintiff opposed. On June 13, 2017, the district court denied Defendants’ motion to dismiss. The parties entered into a settlement agreement on September 12, 2017, in which Defendant USA agreed to pay Plaintiff $45,000 under the FTCA in exchange for dismissing all other claims.

Counsel: Counsel on American-Islamic Relations, CA l Law Office of Shafiel A. Karim

Contact: Marwa Rifahie (Civil Rights Managing Attorney) | mrifahie@cair.com

Martinez-Castro, et al. v. Village of Wakeman, et al.

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Martinez-Castro, et al. v. Village of Wakeman, et al., U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Western Division (N.D. Ohio; 3:12-cv-2364)

In 2012, ABLE filed a federal court complaint on behalf of two Hispanic married couples from Norwalk, Ohio.  The married couples, traveling in the same car and returning from work at a local nursery, were stopped by the Wakeman Police Department early one morning.  Without reasonable suspicion or cause, the Wakeman police officer contacted the U.S. Border Patrol.  When Border Patrol agents arrived at the scene, they proceeded to interrogate and verbally harass the occupants of the car.  The individuals were aggressively removed from the car, handcuffed and taken to the Sandusky Bay Station.  At the station, the individuals were then placed in a room where they were harassed and interrogated by ten to twelve different agents over the course of the day.

The complaint filed against the Village of Wakeman and the U.S. Border Patrol alleges claims under the Fourth Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, Bivens claims against the individual Border Patrol agents and claims pursuant to the Federal Tort Claims Act.  The complaint alleges that the U.S. Border Patrol and the Wakeman Police Department have engaged in illegal profiling of Hispanics and seeks injunctive relief to prohibit the use of race as a motivating factor in stops and detentions.

Following extensive discovery, the court declined to dismiss all but one of Plaintiffs’ claims, finding that they stated a claim for relief and also that they satisfied the pleading standard set out in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678–89 (2009). Subsequently, the parties entered into settlement discussions and reached a resolution of the case in early 2014 in which each of the plaintiffs received $7,000.00 plus an additional amount in attorneys fees.

Saucedo-Carrillo, et al. v. United States

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Saucedo-Carrillo, et al. v. United States, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Western Division (N.D. Ohio; 3:12-cv-2571)

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit  (Sixth Cir. 13-4502)

In a related case to Muñiz v. United States Border Patrol, ABLE filed a Federal Tort Claims Action on behalf of a mother and daughter who allege that a Border Patrol Agent profiled them for arrest because they are Hispanic.  The Plaintiffs were purchasing gasoline at a gas station in Norwalk, Ohio, when an Agent blocked their vehicle and started questioning them.  This lawsuit against the United States alleges the Border Patrol Agent committed the Ohio torts of assault, false imprisonment, deprivation of civil rights through ethnic intimidation, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.  In 2013, the federal district court judge granted a motion for summary judgment filed by the United States.  The Sixth Circuit, in a decision on August 13, 2015, affirmed the grant of summary judgment 2 -1, with the dissenting opinion stating that a factfinder could find that the Plaintiffs were falsely imprisoned before the Border Patrol Agent developed probable cause for an arrest.

On a related note, the Plaintiffs had been placed in removal proceedings.  The Immigration Judge found that their Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the conduct of the Border Patrol Agent, but the violation was not egregious.  The removal cases were administratively closed.

Vazquez-Mentado v. Buitron, et al.

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Vazquez-Mentado v. Buitron, et al., 5:12­-cv-­00797 (N.D. N.Y., filed Nov. 6, 2012)

Mr. Gerardo Vazquez-Mentado, a naturalized U.S. citizen, filed this suit in federal district court in the Northern District of New York based on his unlawful arrest by Border Patrol agents. He brought a claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act for false arrest and false imprisonment and a second claim under Bivens for violation of his Fourth Amendment rights.

On September 29, 2009, Mr. Vazquez, a resident of Oswego, New York, was driving into the city of Oswego. His wife and two children were with him in the family van. He was pulled over by Border Patrol agents who demanded his ID. He then presented his New York state driver’s license. After the agents accused him of being undocumented, Mr. Vazquez responded that he was a U.S. citizen. The Border Patrol agents ignored him, and instead placed him in handcuffs and transported him, with the help of the Oswego Police Department, to the Border Patrol station. He was released only after his wife returned to the station with his U.S. passport and Certificate of Naturalization, approximately 90 minutes after he was first stopped.

Mr. Vazquez first filed a complaint in federal court on May 14, 2002. Defendants filed a motion to dismiss on September 28, 2012. Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on November 6, 2012. Defendants then filed a renewed motion to dismiss on December 7, 2012. After briefing by the parties, the federal court issued an order on May 28, 2013, denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss the FTCA claim as well as the Bivens claim as to the two arresting agents, and granting Mr. Vazquez leave to further amend the complaint to include additional allegations needed to maintain the Bivens claim against the supervising officer.

After subsequent filings, including a second amended complaint, a motion to dismiss by the supervisor officer, and summary judgment motions by the arresting officers, the parties entered into settlement negotiations which culminated in a settlement approved by the court on November 10, 2014.

Arreaga v. United States of America

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Arreaga v. United States of America, 5:16-cv-00007 (S.D. Texas, Complaint filed January 19, 2016)

The complainant, a United States citizen, stopped at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Texas at approximately 11 a.m. on September 4, 2014. He told the agents that he was a United States citizen and showed them his citizenship card. The agents incorrectly believed that he was carrying drugs in his vehicle. They detained and questioned him and disassembled his truck. No drugs were found. Without probable cause, they continued to detain him for a total of approximately 17 hours, finally releasing him at about 4 a.m. the morning following his initial stop. In January 2016, Plaintiff Julio Adolfo Arreaga filed a complaint in the S.D. Tex. Discovery concluded as of December 2016.

The parties agreed to Court-hosted mediation on May 16, 2017. On July 13, 2017, the case was dismissed following a settlement between the parties.

Counsel: Javier Maldonado

Contact: Javier Maldonado | (210) 277-1603 | jmaldonado.law@gmail.com

Moreno v. United States Customs and Border Protection Officer Mario Unate

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Moreno v. United States Customs and Border Protection Officer Mario Unate and the United States of America., No. 3:14-CV-04266-B (N.D. Tex., filed Dec. 3, 2014)

On December 2, 2012 around 5pm, Jorge Moreno Villegas, who is Hispanic, was driving a pick-up truck on a highway outside of Ozona, Texas with a Hispanic colleague as a passenger.  The men were on their way home from work.  Passing in the opposite direction, a Border Patrol agent saw the two men and, turning his vehicle around, squeezed it in between Mr. Moreno’s truck and the vehicle behind it. It is undisputed that Mr. Moreno had not committed any driving violations.  The agent stopped Mr. Moreno and began questioning him and his passenger about their immigration status and citizenship.  The men declined to respond.  The agent then began questioning them in Spanish and ordered Mr. Moreno to exit the truck.  The agent proceeded to handcuff Mr. Moreno and place him in the back of his vehicle.  He did the same for the passenger.

On December 3, 2014, Mr. Moreno filed a complaint against the agent.  He alleges that the agent stopped him without consent or legal authority and was motivated solely by his Hispanic appearance and that of his passenger.  Mr. Moreno brings a claim against the agent for violating the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and an FTCA claim against the United States for false imprisonment and assault.

On February 12, 2015, Defendants moved to dismiss Mr. Moreno’s FTCA claim for false imprisonment on the basis that he had failed to plead facts regarding his immigration status, and that the arrest would have been lawful if he had told the agent that he was not legally present in the United States. Finding that the Border Patrol agent had pulled Mr. Moreno over solely based on his Hispanic appearance, the Court concluded that he lacked reasonable suspicion or probable cause for the stop and thus denied Defendants’ motion.

In late November 2015, the parties filed a joint motion for a stay pending decision on a forthcoming petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in De la Paz v. Coy et al., which was filed in January 2016 (No. 15-888). On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court denied the petition for writ of certiorari in De la Paz. Following the parties’ subsequent stipulation of dismissal, the district court dismissed the case on January 4, 2018.

Counsel: De Mott, McChesney, Curtright & Armendáriz, LLP

Contact: David Armendáriz | 210.534.1844 | davida@dmcausa.com

Complaint by the ACLU to the Department of Homeland Security Denouncing Interior Checkpoint Abuses

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Complaint by ACLU of Arizona and ACLU Border Litigation Project to DHS Office of Inspector General and DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Denouncing Interior Checkpoint Abuses

On January 15, 2014, the ACLU of Arizona and the ACLU Border Litigation Project submitted an administrative complaint to DHS Office of Inspector General and DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties concerning abuses committed by Border Patrol agents at interior vehicle checkpoints in southern Arizona.  The complaint was submitted on behalf of 15 U.S. citizens, aged 6-69 years old, and detailed 12 incidents in which their rights were violated when they were stopped at 6 checkpoints over a period of a year and a half.

The complaint calls for the investigation of all of the incidents identified; a comprehensive review of all complaints regarding Border Patrol checkpoints over the past five years; a thorough review of Border Patrol checkpoint policies and practices to ensure that operations are in fact limited to briefly verifying citizenship and that agents are receiving guidance regarding the limits of their authority; and a review of all policies and procedures related to service canines, in light of widespread reports of “false alerts” by the dogs.

Counsel: ACLU of Arizona

Contact: James Lyall | ACLU of Arizona | 602.650.1854 | jlyall@acluaz.org