Trump Administration Sued Over Immigration Arrests in DC (3)

Latinos in Washington say ICE officers and other federal agents are unlawfully targeting them for immigration arrests without warrants and probable cause.

The federal government’s practice has “sown terror in Latino and other communities,” the plaintiffs told the US District Court for the District of Columbia in a complaint filed Thursday.

The court should vacate and set aside the practice, the proposed class action complaint says.

A US Department of Homeland Security official criticized the lawsuit a day after a fatal shooting at a Dallas ICE facility and rejected any implication that DHS is engaged in racial profiling. “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S.—not their skin color, race, or ethnicity,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to Bloomberg Law. “Under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, DHS law enforcement uses ‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests.” McLaughlin added that “DHS enforces federal immigration law without fear, favor, or prejudice.”

The US Department of Justice didn’t immediately responded to a request for comment.

The suit is the latest salvo by immigration advocates against the Trump administration’s policies.

A recent suit alleges the Trump administration is misclassifying people arrested in the US, who entered the country illegally, to deny them the opportunity for release on bond during immigration proceedings. This practice is contrary to nearly 30 years of settled law and practice, the plaintiffs in that case say.

Thursday’s suit also comes amid a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s use of the National Guard in Washington. The city says mobilization of over 2,000 troops violates US laws that prevent the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement activities.

A federal judge in California recently found Trump’s use of troops in Los Angeles to help law enforcement activities was unlawful. The US government has appealed.

Mass immigration stops and arrests of Latinos in DC are the result of “blatant” racial profiling by ICE officers and other federal agents, the complaint says.

José Escobar Molina, one of the plaintiffs, says he has maintained temporary protected status for El Salvador for over 20 years. He says he was about to get into his work truck near his DC apartment in August when plain-clothed, unidentified federal agents arrested him without a warrant, and without asking him for personal information.

ICE detained him at a Virginia processing facility overnight, but then released him when an ICE supervisor realized he had a valid TPS.

This encounter, and others like it, are part of a policy that violates a federal law that says agents can make an immigration arrest without a warrant only if they have reason to believe an individual is violating an immigration law, and an individual is likely to escape before agents can obtain a warrant for an arrest, the complaint says.

Federal agents, the plaintiffs say, are making warrantless arrests in DC without making individualized determinations of immigration status.

The complaint also says DHS and ICE instituted a similar arrest policy in the Chicago area in 2018. A legal challenge from residents and non-profit organizations resulted in a 3-year settlement requiring ICE to stop unlawful warrantless arrests, the complaint says. The Trump administration has changed the government’s policy in DC in order to carry out mass arrests, the plaintiffs allege.

The plaintiffs seek to represent several classes, including a class persons arrested in DC since Aug. 11, or will be arrested, for alleged immigration violations without a warrant, and without a pre-arrest individualized assessment of probable cause that a person is in the United States unlawfully, and poses a flight risk.

Although the number of individuals subject to unlawful warrantless arrests isn’t known with precision, the complaint says, class members number in the thousands.

In addition to a court order halting the policy, the plaintiffs want federal agents to be required to expunge all records collected and maintained about them arising from their allegedly unlawful arrests, along with an award of costs and fees, among other relief.

Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of the District of Columbia, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Covington & Burling LLP, Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and CASA Inc. represent the plaintiffs.

The case is Escobar Molina v. US Dep’t of Homeland Sec., D.D.C., No. 25-cv-3417, complaint filed 9/25/25.