Overview

• Six people — five U.S. citizens and one lawful permanent resident — submitted formal complaints on August 20 as a precursor to a federal lawsuit after mid-2025 enforcement actions in the Los Angeles area.
• The filings allege unlawful detention, excessive force, racial profiling and fabricated charges, including a claim from a lawful permanent resident who says agents beat him at a Home Depot in Inglewood.
• Cary López Alvarado, nine months pregnant at the time, was arrested in Hawthorne on June 8 and says agents used force on her; she gave birth shortly after her release.
• A federal judge ordered Andrea Vélez released and dismissed her case without prejudice on June 26 following a downtown Los Angeles operation.
• DHS defended the arrests in a statement citing obstruction and assaults on agents, while the DOJ later dropped charges against U.S. citizen Javier Ramírez after his June 12 arrest at his Montebello auto shop.