Home : Immigrants' Rights : Search & Seizure

Most Americans cannot imagine being corralled at the workplace or woken up in the middle of the night by strangers and forced to supply proof of citizenship. Yet that's exactly what happens to many Latinos in this country whether they are here legally or not despite the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of warrantless intrusions into private homes, which apply to all persons, regardless of immigration status.

Yet Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has aggressively stepped up enforcement efforts by conducting numerous and far-reaching worksite and residential raids. ICE is known to engage in a pattern and practice of selectively targeting predominantly Latino neighborhoods and worksites; entering people's homes without proper warrants; and manipulating, coercing or intimidating already scared individuals to "consent" to enter their homes in order to conduct interrogations about their immigration status.

Looking Latino and speaking Spanish is not enough to justify probable cause for questioning and arresting a person. We live in a country where the Constitution ensures that all persons should be given equal protection and fair treatment under the law regardless of the color of their skin, their appearance or their accent.

ACLU Investigating Largest Immigration Raid In The Country (08/27/2008)
LAUREL, MS - In the wake of the largest workplace immigration raid in the country that involved the arrest of at least 600 workers and reports that raise grave concerns about the actions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Mississippi officials, the American Civil Liberties Union began an investigation of ICE's conduct and called on the Bush administration to ensure that constitutional rights are scrupulously respected going forward. Staff from the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project arrived in Mississippi today to assess the situation firsthand.

ACLU Obtains Government "Manual" For Prepackaged Guilty Pleas For Prosecution Of Immigrant Workers In Postville, Iowa (07/31/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union obtained a government "manual" distributed to defense lawyers assigned to represent immigrant workers arrested and prosecuted in last May's Postville, Iowa meatpacking raids. The document – posted on the ACLU Web site today – contains prepackaged scripts for plea and sentencing hearings as well as documents providing for guilty pleas and waivers of rights that were used to push the more than 300 Postville workers through mass criminal proceedings as quickly as possible.

ACLU Demands Government Restore Basic Legal Protections To Meatpacking Workers Arrested In Iowa Raids (05/21/2008)
DES MOINES, IA– The American Civil Liberties Union sharply condemns the denial of basic legal protections to immigrant workers arrested in Postville, Iowa meatpacking raids last week and calls on the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to eliminate arbitrary and unreasonable deadlines for mass plea bargains. The U.S. Attorney's Office and DHS have implemented a troubling system that appears to be designed to undermine fairness and due process by criminally prosecuting the over 300 immigrant workers for identity theft and fraud and rushing them through criminal proceedings with insufficient legal representation.

ACLU Defends Border Patrol Agents for Exposing Practice of 'Shotgunning' (05/21/2008)
TUCSON – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico today filed suit against U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) authorities on behalf of two CBP agents who were suspended from duty after speaking out against the agency's practice of "shotgunning traffic"--i.e., randomly stopping vehicles without reasonable suspicion. Agents Juan Curbelo and William Leafstone, Jr. have worked for the CBP for 12 years.

ICE Immigration Raids Are Reckless and Unconstitutional (05/20/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union commends Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and the Workforce Protection Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee for holding today’s hearing on immigration raids and their impact on families and communities. Since late 2006 the Department of Homeland Security Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) section has undertaken an unprecedented campaign of immigration raids in homes, and worksites. The ACLU has challenged the legality and constitutionality of many of these raids including worksite raids conducted in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Van Nuys, California.

ACLU Amicus brief in United States v. Esparza-Mendoza (01/06/2004)

Immigration Raids: Postville and Beyond (07/31/2008)
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) commends the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law for conducting a hearing on July 24, 2008 regarding the Postville, Iowa immigration raid and criminal prosecutions. Many important facts and questions emerged from the oral and written testimony at the hearing. However, many disturbing aspects of this raid have not been fully addressed and many inconsistencies and critical questions remain unanswered.

Letter to the House Judiciary Committee Urging Opposition to H.R. 4043, the Driver's License Federal Mandate Bill (05/16/2002)

Government "manual" distributed to Iowa defense lawyers (07/31/2008)
Government "manual" distributed to defense lawyers assigned to represent immigrant workers arrested and prosecuted in the May 2008 Postville, Iowa meat packing raids.

ICE Raids (06/25/2008)

ACLU Investigating Largest Immigration Raid In The Country (08/27/2008)
LAUREL, MS - In the wake of the largest workplace immigration raid in the country that involved the arrest of at least 600 workers and reports that raise grave concerns about the actions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Mississippi officials, the American Civil Liberties Union began an investigation of ICE's conduct and called on the Bush administration to ensure that constitutional rights are scrupulously respected going forward. Staff from the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project arrived in Mississippi today to assess the situation firsthand.

ACLU Obtains Government "Manual" For Prepackaged Guilty Pleas For Prosecution Of Immigrant Workers In Postville, Iowa (07/31/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union obtained a government "manual" distributed to defense lawyers assigned to represent immigrant workers arrested and prosecuted in last May's Postville, Iowa meatpacking raids. The document – posted on the ACLU Web site today – contains prepackaged scripts for plea and sentencing hearings as well as documents providing for guilty pleas and waivers of rights that were used to push the more than 300 Postville workers through mass criminal proceedings as quickly as possible.

ACLU Demands Government Restore Basic Legal Protections To Meatpacking Workers Arrested In Iowa Raids (05/21/2008)
DES MOINES, IA– The American Civil Liberties Union sharply condemns the denial of basic legal protections to immigrant workers arrested in Postville, Iowa meatpacking raids last week and calls on the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to eliminate arbitrary and unreasonable deadlines for mass plea bargains. The U.S. Attorney's Office and DHS have implemented a troubling system that appears to be designed to undermine fairness and due process by criminally prosecuting the over 300 immigrant workers for identity theft and fraud and rushing them through criminal proceedings with insufficient legal representation.

ACLU Defends Border Patrol Agents for Exposing Practice of 'Shotgunning' (05/21/2008)
TUCSON – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico today filed suit against U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) authorities on behalf of two CBP agents who were suspended from duty after speaking out against the agency's practice of "shotgunning traffic"--i.e., randomly stopping vehicles without reasonable suspicion. Agents Juan Curbelo and William Leafstone, Jr. have worked for the CBP for 12 years.

ICE Immigration Raids Are Reckless and Unconstitutional (05/20/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union commends Chairwoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and the Workforce Protection Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee for holding today’s hearing on immigration raids and their impact on families and communities. Since late 2006 the Department of Homeland Security Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) section has undertaken an unprecedented campaign of immigration raids in homes, and worksites. The ACLU has challenged the legality and constitutionality of many of these raids including worksite raids conducted in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Van Nuys, California.