The American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. is suing the Department of Homeland Security, its director and other federal agencies charging that federal agents are illegally and indiscriminately arresting people in D.C. who are perceived to be Latino.
The ACLU said in a 36-page lawsuit that the arrests began when President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in the District on Aug. 11.
The lawsuit charges that for the past month and a half, plain clothes, masked and armed federal agents have been indiscriminately arresting District residents who are perceived to be Latino without probable cause or warrants.
“The crux of our case is to stop the government from making unlawful immigration arrests in D.C.,” Aditi Shah, a staff attorney with the D.C. ACLU, said. “What we are really concerned about is the rise in these mass immigration arrests where the requirements, under the law, in order to make these arrests are not being followed.”
Others named as defendants in the lawsuit include the Department of Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the leadership of those agencies.
The ACLU said it filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of several people who were detained and the nonprofit immigrant rights group CASA, demanding federal agents be ordered by the court to stop making arrests.
“We’re challenging the policy and practice of making arrests without a warrant and the probable cause findings that are required by Congress,” Shah emphasized.
The lawsuit alleges that some of the people who have been detained are being sent to detention centers far away from their homes, deliberately to keep them away from their families and lawyers.
One of the suit’s plaintiffs is D.C. resident 47-year-old Jose Escobar Molina, who has lived in D.C. for 25 years since coming from El Salvador with a valid Temporary Protected Status. It said that on Aug. 21, he was walking from his apartment in Northwest D.C. to his truck to begin his work day when two cars approached him and two plain-clothed federal agents, without identifying themselves, handcuffed and arrested Molina.
The lawsuit said Molina was then taken to a detention center in Chantilly, Virginia, where he was held overnight; and the next day, an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervisor realized that he was in the U.S. legally and released him.
“That really matters to people who live and work in D.C. and who feel afraid of getting arbitrarily and unlawfully arrested,” Shah said.
Another plaintiff, a 51-year-old man who has lived in D.C. since 2024, is in the U.S. from Venezuela and has a pending asylum application because he fears he could be persecuted if forced to return.
On Aug. 12, the lawsuit charges, he was stopped by an agent wearing a Drug Enforcement Administration vest in the parking lot of a D.C. Home Depot as he was finishing shopping. The lawsuit said he was arrested without a warrant, and spent four weeks in custody at various facilities before being released on his own recognizance.
Both men and the other plaintiffs say they are fearful they could be arrested again at any moment.
The lawsuit added that even those people who are released relatively quickly “experience significant physical and psychological harm from their arbitrary arrest and detention and fear they will experience those harms again.”
WTOP reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, and it had no comment on the lawsuit.
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