A coalition of groups sued the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, alleging that ICE and other federal agencies are unlawfully arresting immigrants in New York solely over their race or ethnicity.
The coalition, which includes the New York American Civil Liberties Union, Make the Road New York and the Legal Aid Society, filed the class action suit in the Eastern District of New York on behalf of eight immigrants around the state who were allegedly arrested and detained without probable cause.
“ICE is profiling and arresting Black and Brown New Yorkers based solely on their appearance. This is an egregious violation of their civil rights that has caused fear and panic to ripple throughout New York’s immigrant communities,” Meghna Philip, Director of the Special Litigation Unit at The Legal Aid Society, said in a statement.
The plaintiffs include Juan Carlos Quintero, who was arrested while watching a game of dominos in Staten Island. The 41-year old was surrounded by federal agents in three unmarked cars and handcuffed after he said he did not have an ID on him.
In another incident, a 36-year-old Hispanic man was arrested entering his apartment building in Bushwick, Brooklyn, while coming home from work. In a third incident described in the lawsuit, a 24-year-old Hispanic man and a graduate of the City University of New York was arrested on his way to the Long Island Rail Road in Hempstead.
All three have been released from federal custody after lawyers filed emergency lawsuits challenging their arrests.
“DHS agents routinely stop Latinos for no other reason than their appearance and the language they are speaking,” the suit said.
Homeland Security said it arrests people on the basis of reasonable suspicion, consistent with the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. “Any allegations ICE law enforcement engages in racial profiling are FALSE,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
The new lawsuit cites THE CITY’s reporting last fall describing an uptick in street arrests as well as THE CITY’s story this month which found that 800 New Yorkers who were not an intended target of immigration officers were arrested here between October and March. In 85% of these cases, the people detained had no prior criminal record.
Last September, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a 2025 concurring opinion to an emergency order that federal immigration officials may use factors such as language, ethnicity or work as one factor in determining whether someone is in the country without authorization — though not as the only factor.
The order was in response to a suit the ACLU filed against immigration officials for improperly using race while targeting Home Depots in immigration raids in Los Angeles last summer.
The ruling has led some to dub the street arrests by federal agents as “Kavanaugh stops,” and is credited with empowering immigration officials to continue using race as a factor in arrests.
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