The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit this week in federal court in Phoenix on behalf of an Arizona woman who spent five days in the custody of immigration authorities after a Pinal County Sheriff’s deputy “cited and released” her following a traffic stop, then instructed another sheriff’s deputy to transport her to a nearby Border Patrol station.
The ACLU claims that the woman’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the deputies for detaining her based on a suspicion that she was an undocumented immigrant. At the time of her detention, the woman, Maria Cortes, had a pending U-visa application stemming from her status as a victim of domestic violence.
“When the officer who stopped me asked if I had a visa, I offered to show him a copy of my pending U-visa application that I keep in the glove compartment of the car but he said he wasn’t interested in that,” claimed Cortes. “They put me in the police car, never told me why they were taking me or where I was going, which really worried me because I didn’t know what would happen to my children — the five days I spent detained were a nightmare for me.”
The incident occurred on September 29, 2012; Ms. Cortes was granted a U-visa less than a year later.
In Tucson alone, the ACLU has filed several “Notices of Claim” alleging that law enforcement officers regularly engage in racial profiling and illegal detention as a result of the law. This is the first federal lawsuit to challenge application of SB1070.
Last year, the ACLU took action against the South Tucson Police Department (STPD) on behalf of an individual who was allegedly detained by officers without any legal basis and turned over to the Border Patrol. The claim charged false arrest and imprisonment, unreasonable search and seizure and violation of his equal protection under the law. A lawsuit was averted in May of this year after STPD agreed to overhaul the department’s policies with respect to immigration enforcement.
According to a new report from the Associated Press, approximately 70% of the illegal-alien families, who illegally crossed the border in fiscal year 2013, failed to show up for their follow-up meetings with federal immigration agents. The AP reports that an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that the illegal aliens were detained crossing the border illegally, given an appointment to meet with ICE officials a two weeks later, and then released into the U.S.
According to the AP report, that the ICE official made the statement in a private meeting with immigration advocates on Wednesday in an effort to defend the construction of temporary holding facilities along the Southwest border. The AP estimates that 41,000 illegal aliens were released into the U.S. and failed to appear for their meetings with federal agents.
The official also said that 860 illegal aliens have been ordered deported, but only 14 have been removed so far.
The Department of Homeland Security and the White House had been asked for specific numbers on removals and relocations into the United States, but failed to answer questions more than a dozen times when asked by reporters.