Trump ICE Agents Carrying Out ‘Brazen’ Abductions: Lawsuit Alleges

The Trump administration has been heavily criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union for “violating constitutional principles” through its immigration activities in Southern California. The ACLU alleges that these operations involve “armed agents” targeting Los Angeles residents “based on their race,” performing ICE raids and apprehensions that resemble “brazen kidnappings in broad daylight.”

The ACLU of Southern California filed a federal class action lawsuit on Wednesday in the Central District of California representing immigrants affected by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since President Donald Trump assumed office. The lawsuit lists the Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, along with other officials in Trump’s government, as defendants. It claims that ICE and DHS have developed “an unlawful system of detention and expulsion” beginning around June 6, as detailed in the complaint.

“One of the clearest patterns that have emerged in the raids in Southern California over the past few weeks has been stops and interrogations based on nothing but broad profiles, including on the basis of apparent race and ethnicity,” the complaint says.

“In a typical encounter, agents and officers approach suddenly and in large numbers,” the ACLU alleges. “Typically dressed in military style or SWAT clothing, heavily armed with weapons displayed, and masked, their vests may display only a generic ‘POLICE’ patch (if they display anything at all).”

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The complaint blasts Trump’s immigration operations as a “grossly disproportionate display of force” that is enough to “make any person fear for their safety and feel compelled to comply.” One alleged tactic that is listed involved agents positioning themselves around individuals “aggressively” while they allegedly “bark commands.”

Pedro Vasquez Perdomo, a Pasadena resident who has lived in California for decades, says he was waiting at a bus stop across the street from a Winchell’s Donuts with co-workers, waiting to be picked up for a job, when four cars converged on his location and about half a dozen agents — all with weapons and masks — took him away without identifying themselves.

“To petitioner-plaintiff Vasquez Perdomo, it felt like a kidnapping,” the complaint alleges. “He tried to leave but was swiftly surrounded, grabbed, handcuffed, and put into one of the vehicles.”

Individuals who have tried to avoid “encounters” with agents have been chased and pushed to the ground, “sometimes even beaten,” before being taken away, according to the ACLU.

The rights group says that on top of the unlawful arrests, the government has also “resorted” to keeping individuals at what is supposed to be a short-term processing center and ICE basement holding area in downtown Los Angeles, known as “B-18″ — often for days, the complaint alleges. “In these dungeon-like facilities, conditions are deplorable and unconstitutional,” the filing charges. “The government has also unlawfully deprived those arrested of access to counsel. Under such conditions, some of those arrested are pressured into accepting voluntary departure.”