Southern Poverty Law Center sues ICE for alleged unlawful raids in Georgia

The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleging unconstitutional immigration raids in Georgia.

The complaint is based on ICE raids that occurred in January 2016 among immigrant families in Atlanta, according to information released by the SPLC. The organization filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request within days of the raids, seeking information about the warrants. When complete records were not released, SPLCS filed the lawsuit, arguing that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE had failed to release adequate records, in violation of the Freedom of Information Act. A federal court ordered DHS and ICE to comply with the FOIA request by Feb. 16, according to the release.

“ICE agents preyed upon vulnerable families using fear and lies to improperly enter homes – without cause – and detain people who were legally present in the U.S.,” said Lisa Graybill, deputy legal director at the SPLC. “The safety of home and the freedom from unlawful searches and seizures are among America’s most fundamental values, and law enforcement officials at all levels are legally required to protect these constitutional rights. The anything-goes method of the ICE agents in these raids obliterated due process, tore families apart, and did nothing to enhance national security.”

The SPLC, based in Montgomery, Ala., is calling for ICE to "immediately halt the use of these unconstitutional and deceptive practices, and is seeking damages for subjects of the raids under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) for false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress," according to the news release. Earlier this year, the organization also released a comprehensive report featuring stories from women impacted by the ICE raids.

"In one instance, ICE agents impersonated police officers searching for a criminal suspect, and threatened a family member with arrest for obstruction of a fictitious criminal investigation for denying them entry into his home," the release reads. "In two other raids, ICE agents falsely claimed they were local police officers searching for a criminal suspect in the home. They showed the residents a photo of an African-American man whom they claimed was the suspect in a criminal investigation, in order to gain entry into the home.

“After gaining entry, the officers informed the occupants that they were, in fact, ICE agents, and seized residents who were legally present in the U.S. for detention and deportation,” it continues. “Their claim that they were searching for an African American criminal was a ruse."

In an email to the Ledger-Enquirer, ICE Spokesman Bryan D. Cox said the agency does not comment on pending litigation as a matter of policy, nor does it discuss “specific enforcement tactics and techniques due to operational security and officer safety reasons.”

“... In general terms, ICE enforcement actions are planned and executed in full compliance with federal law and agency policy,” he wrote. “Officers receive regular training to ensure agency practices are compliant with those policies as well as the Fourth Amendment.”

Under the Trump administration, there has been a 42 percent increase in arrests, with 111,000 people detained between Jan. 20 and Sept. 30, according to SPLC. The detainees included Jose Gonzalez, a 20-year-old Shaw High School graduate, who was picked up in Hamilton in Easter Sunday while traveling to a picnic with his girlfriend.

Ochoa, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, was brought into the country by his father when he was about 13 years old. In June, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services found Ochoa eligible for a U-visa reserved for victims of domestic violence and he was released from the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Ga. He remains in Columbus awaiting the final outcome of his case.

Bradley Banias is co-counsel at the Barnwell Whaley Law Firm based in Charleston, S.C. He calls the deportation of children and their family a "gross misdirection of resources."

"... Needless raids make our communities less safe because families come to fear law enforcement and are less likely to reach out when crimes do occur,” he said. “Our clients want to serve as an example of what happens to mothers and children when an agency like ICE abuses its power. Most of all, they want this never to happen again to peaceful families trying to become productive American citizens.”

This story was originally published December 14, 2017 at 12:29 PM with the headline "Southern Poverty Law Center sues ICE for alleged unlawful raids in Georgia."