Overview
- Filed in U.S. District Court, the lawsuit targets practices by ICE, CBP and other federal agents and seeks a preliminary injunction and emergency relief.
- The complaint alleges agents rely on racial profiling of people perceived to be Somali or Latino, conduct stops without reasonable suspicion, and make arrests without warrants or probable cause.
- Plaintiffs include U.S. citizens who say they were detained despite asserting their status, with examples describing masked agents, a demand to remove a niqab, and an agent questioning why a family spoke a foreign language.
- The filing comes after an expanded federal enforcement push known as Operation Metro Surge since December, which local reports say has included neighborhood sweeps and two agent-involved shootings, one fatal.
- A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson rejected the allegations as false, saying enforcement decisions are based on reasonable suspicion and legal standards, not race or ethnicity.