Home : Immigrants' Rights : Search & Seizure

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.

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.

Civil Rights Groups File Lawsuit Over Van Nuys Workplace Raid After ICE Bars Attorneys From Immigration Interviews (02/14/2008)
LOS ANGELES — The ACLU of Southern California, National Lawyers Guild, and National Immigration Law Center asked a federal judge today to order U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to allow attorneys for workers arrested in last Thursday’s raid in Van Nuys to represent their clients at their immigration interviews. Over the past few days, ICE officials barred attorneys from accompanying their clients to the hearings, where workers were interviewed and then charged with immigration violations.

Families Sue Otero County Sheriffs Over Illegal Immigration Raids (10/17/2007)
LAS CRUCES, NM—Civil rights groups sued the Otero County Sheriff’s Department today for civil rights violations committed during immigration sweeps last September in the southern New Mexico town of Chaparral. On behalf of five Latino families, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico charged sheriff’s deputies with raiding homes without search warrants, interrogating families without evidence of criminal activity, and targeting households on the basis of race and ethnicity. The groups seek monetary damages and guarantees that the sheriff’s department will refrain from such raids in the future.

ACLU of New Mexico Reacts to Sweeps of Border Immigrant Communities (09/14/2007)
LAS CRUCES, NM - The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico condemned recent immigration raids by Otero and Doña Ana County Sheriff's deputies in the border towns of Chaparral and Vado today. The local police agencies are assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to conduct sweeps of immigrant neighborhoods, knocking on doors and checking identification. Authorities also are stopping motorists and entering private businesses.

Santa Fe Immigration Sweep Prompts ACLU Investigation (03/19/2007)
ALBUQUERQUE - In response to recent immigration sweeps in Santa Fe, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico today filed an official request for all records surrounding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in New Mexico.

ACLU of Southern California Presses For Answers on Border Patrol Sweeps (07/20/2004)
LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California today filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking information from U.S. Customs and Border Protection about recent immigration raids conducted across Southern California.

Constitution's Protection Against Unreasonable Search and Seizure Applies to All Immigrants in the U.S., ACLU Argues (01/06/2004)
SALT LAKE CITY- The American Civil Liberties Union today announced the filing of a brief urging the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse an unprecedented lower court ruling that threatens to strip many immigrants of their right to be free from unconstitutional searches and seizures that violate the Fourth Amendment.

ACLU Calls Immigrant Fingerprinting Plan Discriminatory and Ineffective (08/13/2002)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today said that the Department of Justice plan to fingerprint and track immigrants and visitors to the United States, made final yesterday, is discriminatory and will inevitably be ineffective.

ACLU Calls Latest Immigrant Tracking Scheme Discriminatory and Ineffective (06/05/2002)
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today said that the latest Department of Justice plan to fingerprint and track immigrants and visitors to the United States is discriminatory and will inevitably be ineffective.

Human Rights Commission to Hear Case About Migrant Deaths on Southwest Border (11/13/2001)
WASHINGTON D.C. - - At a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights tomorrow, the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation will present arguments about the sharp rise in migrant deaths along the southwest U.S. border. Both organizations asked the Commission in 1999 to find that the Immigration and Naturalization Service's use of a migrant redirection strategy is abusive and a risk to human life. 

ACLU Calls On Providence Police To Dismiss Case Against Sikh Arrested At Train Station (10/16/2001)
PROVIDENCE, RI - - In a letter sent today to Providence Police Chief Richard Sullivan, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island has called on the police department to drop the criminal charge filed against a traveling Sikh man for carrying a ceremonial dagger the day after the September 11 terrorist attacks.