In this legal action, ACLU lawyers accuse officers of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) of engaging in racial and ethnic stereotyping. They carried out an immigration roundup that violated the Fourth Amendment rights of dozens of Denver-area Spanish-speaking residents and resulted in the illegal arrest and illegal search of United States citizens and legal immigrants who had done absolutely nothing wrong.
The ACLU’s clients, Arquimides Bautista and Rosalba Artimas, are United States citizens who live in the Denver area and are active vendors of Amway products. Along with several dozen other Spanish-speaking distributors, they boarded a chartered bus to travel to an Amway convention in Omaha, Nebraska. Arriving early in the morning, the bus stopped at a fast food restaurant so the passengers could eat breakfast. An ICE officer happened to be getting breakfast at the same time.
According to an ICE report, the Spanish-speaking ICE officer overheard the bus passengers speaking in Spanish and concluded that they had been traveling “for a while.” Based solely on the conversations in Spanish and "the dress of the individuals," the ICE officer suspected that the chartered bus was carrying what she called “a smuggling load.” She called her superiors, who quickly sent reinforcements.
After the passengers returned to the bus, ICE officers swooped in. As ICE vehicles blocked the bus on either side, ICE officers, ordered the uniformed driver out of the bus and questioned him. The driver explained that Amway had hired his company, Global Transportation, Inc., to take the passengers from Denver to the Omaha Hilton for a convention. He also explained that he makes a similar trip to Amway gatherings every three months.
Ignoring the bus driver’s explanation, three ICE officers boarded the bus and barked commands to the passengers. They announced they were from “immigration” and began aggressively demanding identification and questioning passengers about their immigration status They ordered the bus driver as well as the passengers to turn off their cell phones or else they would be confiscated. After checking a handful of the passengers’ IDs, including the IDs of the ACLU’s two citizen clients, the ICE agents abruptly decided to commandeer the bus and take all of the passengers into custody. Without providing any explanation to the passengers, the ICE agents directed the bus driver to an ICE facility, where the passengers were ordered to get off in groups of five.
ICE agents forced all passengers to empty their pockets, put their hands up against a wall, and submit to thorough body searches. The passengers were then confined in cells to await further questioning and processing.
After ICE agents were satisfied that Mr. Bautista and Ms. Artimas were citizens, they were released, but not until Mr. Bautista was fingerprinted and forced to pose for a mug shot.
The legal action was initiated under under the Federal Tort Claims Act, under which the United States can be sued for certain actions of its employees. In this case, the claims are false arrest, false imprisonment, and battery. In response, the government avoided a federal court lawsuit by providing monetary compensaiton to the ACLU's clients.
ACLU Press Release:
- "ACLU Files Legal Claim Against ICE On Behalf Of U.S. Citizens Arrested In Unwarranted Immigration Roundup," ACLU Press Release, November 12, 2010
Media:
- "Two Americans file claim over questioning by ICE agent," The Denver Post, November 15, 2010
- "The ACLU Takes on ICE for Detaining Spanish-Speaking Amway Conventioneers," 5280, November 16, 2010
- "ACLU Files Complaint Over April ICE Raid," Huff Post, November 15, 2010
- "ACLU accuses ICE of illegally detaining bus," The Denver Post, November 15, 2010
