Latest news with #MALDEF
Axios
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Axios
ICE accused of racial profiling in detentions of Latino U.S. citizens
A growing number of U.S. citizens — many of them Latinos — are reporting they were detained for various periods by immigration agents in what critics say were instances of racial profiling and overzealous policing. Why it matters: U.S. citizens aren't supposed to be arrested or detained unless agents allege they're breaking laws. But reports of citizens of Latino descent being detained — or stopped and asked to prove citizenship — are rippling through Latino communities nationwide. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hasn't released statistics on such detentions in months. Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, told Axios that recent reports of citizens wrongly being arrested are false — and that "the media is shamefully peddling a false narrative" to demonize ICE agents. But an Axios review of news reports, social media videos and claims by advocacy groups about raids since President Trump took office found several instances in which U.S. citizens alleged they were wrongfully detained — in one case, for 10 days in immigration detention. The big picture: The allegations come as ICE continues raids in mostly Latino communities in the Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Diego areas, cities in Texas, New Mexico, New York and Florida, and agricultural centers such as Central California. State of play: In May, ICE briefly detained Florida-born Leonardo Garcia Venegas from his job at a construction site in Foley, Ala. Agents alleged that Garcia's Real ID was fake, according to Noticias Telemundo. He alleged agents forced him to his knees and handcuffed him. Immigration officials held U.S. citizen and Albuquerque resident Jose Hermosillo for 10 days in Arizona's Florence Correctional Center after arresting him, and didn't believe him when he said he was a citizen, per Arizona Public Media. Last month, ICE briefly detained U.S. citizen Elzon Lemus, an electrician from Brentwood, N.Y., during a traffic stop after agents told Lemus he "looked like" someone they were looking for, CBS News first reported. Also in June, plain clothes ICE agents momentarily detained East Los Angeles-born Jason Brian Gavidia outside an auto body shop in Montebello, Calif., and demanded he tell them where he was born. "I'm an American, bro!" a witness recording him saying. Gavidia told The New York Times he believed his encounter with ICE was because he was Latino, and that other U.S. Latinos are experiencing similar scrutiny. In California, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) says it plans to file a $1 million federal lawsuit accusing ICE of assaulting and unlawfully detaining a U.S. citizen in front of a Home Depot in Hollywood. MALDEF is representing Job Garcia, a photographer who was detained last month while recording video of Border Patrol and ICE agents conducting a raid outside the Home Depot. Federal agents held Garcia in detention for 24 hours despite having confirmed he was a U.S. citizen with no criminal warrants or any reason to suspect he'd committed a crime, MALDEF alleges. DHS's McLaughlin said Garcia assaulted and verbally harassed a Border Patrol agent. "He was subdued and arrested for assault on a federal agent," she said. MALDEF and other civil rights groups say they don't know how many U.S. citizens have been wrongly detained by ICE or the Border Patrol during Trump's immigration crackdown. Guadalupe Gonzalez of the LA-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center told Axios she knew of at least five cases of U.S. citizens in Southern California being detained by ICE in recent weeks. The DHS's McLaughlin said some of the U.S. citizens detained were interfering with immigration enforcement operations — claims that advocates dispute. "DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted and are not resulting in the arrest of U.S. citizens," McLaughlin said. "We do our due diligence." What they're saying: "Let's just call it what it is. This is racial discrimination," said Mario Trujillo, a City Council member in Downey, Calif. Trujillo said Downey — a prosperous community of 110,000 known as the "Mexican Beverly Hills" because about 75% of its population is Latino — has seen several ICE raids recently. Now many Mexican Americans there carry their passports, just in case, she said. "Reports of American citizens detained by ICE purely based on their race are wholly unacceptable and run afoul of our Fourth Amendment rights," U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) told Axios. "No one should feel unsafe because of the color of their skin, but in Donald Trump's America — where indiscriminate immigration raids are commonplace — this is the stark reality," he added. The other side: "Any claims that individuals have been 'targeted' by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE," McLaughlin wrote in an email to Axios.
The Hill
03-07-2025
- The Hill
U.S. citizen seeks $1 million after arrest, detention for recording immigration raid
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) said Wednesday they were preparing to initiate a $1 million lawsuit on behalf of a U.S. citizen detained in Los Angeles after recording a raid at a local Home Depot store. The civil rights organization filed a claim against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regarding the treatment of Job Garcia, 37, a Ph.D. student and photographer. MALDEF said immigration officers threw Garcia on the ground, then knelt on his back and neck as they handcuffed him for recording the raid and advising a commercial truck driver being questioned not to exit his vehicle or answer questions from law enforcement. He was held in custody for more than 24 hours, according to the organization. 'Border Patrol and ICE punished me for informing others of their rights and for exercising my own rights,' Garcia said in a Wednesday release. He claimed that at no time did the agents warn him to move away or to stop recording before his arrest. DHS did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment on the matter. MALDEF alleges that federal agents confined Garcia without legal authority and arrested him without probable cause in a racially motivated effort. Attorneys said his constitutional rights were potentially violated, including the right to free speech, the right to remain silent, the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, and the right to due process under the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments. As a result, Garcia's lawyers say he suffered economic losses and personal injury. 'Border Patrol and ICE punished Job Garcia simply for exercising his right to record a discriminatory immigration raid at Home Depot,' said Ernest Herrera, MALDEF Western Regional Counsel. 'The Trump Administration must be stopped in its campaign of terror against those who disagree with mass deportations.'
NBC News
02-07-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
U.S. citizen seeks $1M after arrest, detention for recording immigration raid at Home Depot
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is demanding the federal government pay $1 million in damages to a U.S. citizen who was arrested and detained while he was recording an immigration raid at a Home Depot in Los Angeles last month. MALDEF put the government on notice of a coming civil lawsuit for what it says were assault, battery, false arrest and false imprisonment against Job Garcia, 37. Garcia, a Ph.D. student and photographer, was tackled and thrown to the ground by agents in the Home Depot parking lot in Hollywood, arrested and held for more than 24 hours, MALDEF said. It said Wednesday that it submitted the claim against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Border Patrol and other Department of Homeland Security agencies involved in Garcia's arrest. MALDEF also said that Garcia's arrest and detention were racially motivated and that the government agents may have violated his constitutional protections for free speech, his right to remain silent, his freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and his right to due process. MALDEF said the claim is a required administrative step before it files a lawsuit against the Border Patrol, ICE and the other DHS agencies. "The Border Patrol and ICE agents unlawfully restrained and detained Mr. Garcia for more than 24 hours without any valid grounds for interfering with his liberty and freedom of movement and they did so based on legally prohibited grounds," MALDEF said in its claim letter, dated Tuesday. MALDEF said he was released without arraignment or notification of a future court date. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that Garcia assaulted and verbally harassed a federal agent and that he was subdued and arrested for the alleged assault. She repeated Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's warning that anyone who lays a hand on a law enforcement officer will be fully prosecuted. Ernest Herrera, MALDEF's Western regional counsel, said the claim sends a message to the federal government about punishing people for exercising their First Amendment rights "and for hurting bystanders and protesters, whether they be U.S. citizens or not during these raids that are happening in public places." Garcia regularly traveled to Los Angeles-area Home Depots for his job as a delivery driver for an online business. He and others saw agents making the arrests and started recording them on his smartphone, MALDEF said. When Customs and Border Patrol agents surrounded a commercial light truck, he and other bystanders yelled to the driver not to open his door or window and to keep silent, according to MALDEF. "All individuals that Border Patrol agents had detained up to this point appeared to be Latino or Latin American national origin. The driver of the light commercial truck also appeared to be Latino or of Latin American national origin," it said. MALDEF said a masked agent lunged at Garcia and tried to grab his phone, leading him to move backward. The agent who had lunged at him threw Garcia's phone to the ground and tackled him. Other agents joined in, restraining him with their knees in his back and pressing his face into the asphalt, even though he did not resist, MALDEF said. "Mr. Garcia felt that his breathing was restricted and momentarily feared that he may be killed in this position," the claim says. An agent transferring Garcia tried to speak to him in Spanish "and was surprised when Mr. Garcia responded in English" but continued to try to speak Spanish to him. Garcia was taken to Dodger Stadium in handcuffs. By that time, agents had confirmed that he was a citizen with no criminal warrants and that there was no information to suspect he had committed a crime, MALDEF said. "During this time, Garcia said he heard the agents boasting about how many 'bodies' they had gotten that day and saw them celebrate with high-fives," it said. The claim also sends a message that 'the American public does not approve of this sort of immigration enforcement action where people are terrorized, where certain people are targeted and agents themselves are bragging about how many bodies they got,' Herrera said. Agents tried to interrogate Garcia after they read him his rights, MALDEF said. He refused to answer questions and was not read his rights when later attempts were made to interrogate him, it said. He was transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles and released the next day, without arraignment or any information about a future court date, MALDEF said. "Border Patrol and ICE punished me for informing others of their rights and exercising my own rights," Garcia said in the MALDEF statement. MALDEF said Garcia sustained bruising on his back, neck, arms, face and legs from the tackling and restraint, that he is suffering emotional distress and that he lost out on more than four days of delivery work, costing him $2,500 to $3,000. He also has stopped his academic work because of emotional distress and might not complete his program in a year, as expected, MALDEF said. 'When government engages in widespread violation of individual rights with respect to immigrants without status, the harm inevitably spills over and spreads to others; that is why we must insist, as a society, on respect for the rights of everyone,' Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF's president and general counsel, said in a statement. 'Here, a citizen, acting in the best traditions of our democracy, was engaged in documenting government misconduct to encourage policy change; he was wrongfully arrested and detained because of his race and his heroic efforts,' Saenz said.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nonprofit fights back after Texas ends in-state tuition for undocumented students
Texas ended in-state tuition for students without legal documentation last week in a quick concession to a Trump administration's lawsuit, but now a San Antonio-based civil rights group has taken the first step to legally restore the 2001 law. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a motion Wednesday to challenge a judge's decision to enjoin the state from enforcing the Texas Dreamers Act, a 2001 law authorizing in-state tuition for eligible residents. The federal government sued June 4 alleging that the 2001 act violated federal law that prevents students without legal status from accessing special benefits unavailable to citizens. Texas asked a North Texas district court to strike down the law, joining the Trump administration's suit, and the judge stopped the state from enforcing it. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said last week that he joined the Trump administration's motion to end the "unconstitutional" law. 'Ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas," he said. MALDEF said it is planning to pursue legal status on behalf of Students for Affordable Tuition, a group of students who would have to pay out-of-state tuition four times as high if the judge's ruling holds. "What happened last week — the invalidation of longstanding state law in the course of one afternoon — was an abuse of our judicial system; those affected by the attempted invalidation have the right to be heard on the legality of the Texas Dream Act," said Thomas Saenez, the president and general council of MALDEF. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas nonprofit fights end to in-state tuition for undocumented students
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
L.A. Woman: Eva Longoria Fights For Her Community on Film and on the Ground
"Anytime there's a natural disaster, there's so much heartbreak,' actress Eva Longoria says, reflecting on her experiences on the ground helping victims of the Eaton Fire in Altadena, where she aided in cleanup and handing out food and other necessities. 'All of the stories were so humbling and a lot of the people in Altadena are from Black and brown communities, so they not only lost their homes, but a lot also lost their work [as] nannies, gardeners, construction workers and housekeepers.'Longoria — who splits her time between Los Angeles, Mexico and Spain — says she focused on holding space for people's stories while holding their hands, adding that the stress of deportation raids, which increased when the Trump administration came into office, made things worse. 'A lot of the people I was speaking to were undocumented and living in fear,' she there were inspirational moments amid the despair. 'L.A. galvanized around this — there was no Republican and no Democrat,' she says. 'It was people out there helping each other … that was the most beautiful thing.'The Corpus Christi, Texas native — who recently backed Kamala Harris for president and spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention — has been a champion for progressive ideals and social justice since she became a star on Desperate Housewives 20 years ago. As her profile grew, so did her activism. She's used her platform to fight for immigration reform and workers' rights via the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) as well as United Farm Workers and the Dolores Huerta Foundation. Her own namesake foundation helps Latina women and their families with education and entrepreneurship, and another group she formed, Eva's Heroes, is dedicated to helping special needs adults with a variety of online and in-person addition to her presence on the front lines of the L.A. fires, she donated to the California Community Foundation's Wildfire Recovery Fund. She also contributed $1 million to Julián Castro's Latino Community Foundation's Wildfire Relief Fund — to 'make sure that the people from my community were getting resources that they needed,' she says of something she's always prioritized. "I am a very proud Latina,' Longoria adds — and it seems to inspire everything she does, from serving as director of 2023's Flamin' Hot to her most recent acting role as Selena Gomez's movie double in Only Murders in the Building. Her CNN original series Searching for Spain — a spinoff of her hit Searching for Mexico — is coming in 2025, and an FX and Disney+ Latin America docuseries following the Mexican soccer team Club Necaxa is also forthcoming. Her comedy film Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip debuts on Disney+ March 28, and she celebrates 20 years as a global ambassador for L'Oréal philanthropy remains her most important role. 'I do it as a person who cares deeply about humanity,' she says, 'and as a daughter who grew up in a household where my parents taught me what volunteerism means and the value of it.'Learn more about Longoria's humanitarian projects and social justice work at and
