A collective lawsuit has been filed in federal court against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) alleging a pattern of illegal arrests during immigration enforcement operations in North Carolina. The suit, brought on behalf of five individuals – including U.S. Citizens – claims federal agents lacked probable cause for the detentions and violated established legal standards.
The lawsuit, filed on , in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, seeks to prevent what plaintiffs allege is a systemic practice of warrantless arrests without individualized suspicion. Democracy Forward, representing the plaintiffs alongside the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina (ACLU-NC), the national ACLU, and the Southeast Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ), argues that the arrests contravene federal law requiring probable cause to believe an individual is deportable or a flight risk.
The legal challenge comes amid heightened scrutiny of ICE and CBP tactics following concerns raised by Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican representing North Carolina. , Senator Tillis sent a letter to Kristi Noem, Secretary of the DHS, demanding answers regarding the agencies’ operations within the state. This followed reports of aggressive enforcement actions, including the large-scale “Charlotte’s Web” operation in , and similar incidents in Minnesota that resulted in civilian injuries.
While Senator Tillis has publicly supported the arrest of individuals with criminal records, he expressed concern over reports that U.S. Citizens were mistakenly detained, subjected to force, and experienced property damage. His letter requests detailed information on each detention and interaction conducted during the operations in North Carolina and Minneapolis, with a response deadline of early .
The lawsuit echoes similar legal challenges filed in other jurisdictions, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Washington D.C., and Colorado. In these cases, courts have previously blocked similar tactics, finding them to be in violation of constitutional rights. The core issue revolves around the practice of arresting individuals in public spaces without establishing a reasonable basis to believe they are unlawfully present in the country, or even that they are not citizens.
According to Democracy Forward, these arrests are often characterized by excessive force and damage to personal property. Agents are alleged to have broken vehicle windows, forcibly removed individuals from cars, confiscated personal belongings, and used aggressive tactics during encounters.
The “Charlotte’s Web” operation, which involved a team of at least 200 agents – many wearing masks and armed with rifles – resulted in the detention of over 425 individuals. The operation extended beyond Charlotte to include Durham, Raleigh, and other localities, where agents allegedly conducted arrests “indiscriminately and without legal justification.”
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Willy Aceituno, a naturalized U.S. Citizen of Honduran origin, who was intercepted by CBP agents in a Charlotte parking lot on the first day of the operation. A video of the encounter, which went viral on social media, allegedly shows agents attempting to detain Aceituno twice and damaging his vehicle in the process. Edwin Godínez, a U.S. Citizen born in California, and his half-brother Yair Alexander Nápoles, a U.S. Citizen born in North Carolina, also feature as plaintiffs. They allege they were mistreated and had their cell phones confiscated during an encounter with ICE agents in Salisbury on , before their citizenship was verified.
Rounding out the plaintiffs are Yoshi Cuenca Villamar, a U.S. Citizen born in North Carolina, and Rubén Arguera López, a legal resident of El Salvador who obtained a U visa after being the victim of an assault in 2020. The lawsuit details the circumstances of each plaintiff’s detention and seeks a declaratory judgment declaring the DHS’s policy of warrantless mass arrests illegal, as well as a permanent injunction blocking the practice.
“Congress has been explicit about the requirements for warrantless immigration arrests, demanding individualized probable cause,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “When armed, masked agents break car windows, handcuff people without cause, and pull them onto the side of the road, that’s not law enforcement, that’s lawlessness.”
Perryman emphasized that the DHS is allegedly conducting mass arrests that disregard Congressional limitations and constitutional protections. “This case is about restoring basic limits on government power and ensuring federal officials follow the law they swore to uphold,” she stated.
Corina Scott, an attorney with ACLU-NC, added that federal agents have disregarded the law and “trampled” on civil rights in North Carolina. “This lawsuit seeks to stop this abuse of power and demand accountability going forward so our communities are no longer subjected to violent and illegal arrests,” she said.
The lawsuit also highlights the disruption caused by the enforcement operations to local communities, particularly schools. Following the start of “Charlotte’s Web,” absences in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) more than doubled, with over 30,000 students absent on . Similar increases in absenteeism were reported in other districts, such as Durham Public Schools.
The case raises broader questions about the balance between national security and civil liberties, and the potential for overreach in immigration enforcement. The outcome of the lawsuit could have significant implications for how ICE and CBP conduct operations not only in North Carolina, but across the United States, potentially setting a precedent for protecting the rights of individuals during immigration enforcement actions.
