The mother of a 15-year-old boy who was detained at gunpoint by federal immigration agents is seeking $1m in damages and accusing the Trump administration of false imprisonment and “unconstitutional racial profiling”.
The teenager, a US citizen with disabilities, was in a vehicle with his mother outside Arleta high school in Los Angeles on 11 August when masked immigration agents surrounded them and pulled them from the vehicle. They said the boy was a suspect in a crime, and handcuffed him for several minutes until they realized they had the wrong person, the Los Angeles Times reported.
His mother told NBC4 that the agent told her son they had confused him with someone else, but to “look at the bright side: you’re gonna have an exciting story to tell your friends when you go back to school”.
“What’s exciting about getting guns pointed at you?” she said.
The claim, filed by the Carrillo law firm on behalf of the boy and his mother, alleges that Ice and Border Patrol agents had no reasonable suspicion or probable cause to detain the boy and caused him physical injury and emotional distress. He is traumatized and depressed, his mother said to media.
The agents “racially profiled [the teen] while he was merely sitting his car waiting for his family member”, the claim states. It also alleges the agents left live bullet rounds on the scene in an act of “clear negligence”.
The incident drew widespread outrage across Los Angeles, and fueled fears around the activities of immigration agents, particularly around city schools. Days earlier, authorities arrested an 18-year-old as he was walking his dog, shortly before he was set to start his senior year of high school.
The Los Angeles Unified school district has moved to adopt new strategies to protect students and “ensure that schools remain safe, supportive spaces for all children and families – regardless of immigration status”.
Alberto M Carvalho, the LAUSD superintendent, has said the incident involving the 15-year-old was “unacceptable”. Immigration enforcement around schools “disrupts learning and creates anxiety that can last far beyond the school day”, Carvalho said in a statement earlier this month.
In response to the 15-year-old’s detainment, Luz Rivas, a congressperson, condemned the administration’s “continued use of violent tactics to terrorize our students and families”.
The claim was filed against the US Department of Homeland Security, US Customs and Border Protection, US Customs and Border Protection and United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Department of Homeland Security said allegations that agents targeted the high school were false and that agents were conducting a “targeted operation on [a] criminal illegal alien”.
“What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the US – NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity. America’s brave men and women are removing murderers, MS-13 gang members, pedophiles, rapists–truly the worst of the worst from Golden State communities,” the statement said.
The agency accused the law firm of trying to use“racial animus to collect clicks, clout, and cash”.
