A Portland, Maine, man is suing the federal immigration agents who arrested him in January, arguing that he was racially profiled and wrongfully detained during a deportation surge.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of Juan Sebastián Carvajal-Muñoz, stating that his civil rights were violated during “Operation Catch of the Day,” a weeklong Immigration and Customs Enforcement effort in Maine.
While driving to work, he was stopped by federal officers who demanded his paperwork. After offering proof of his lawful immigration status, the agents said that his visa would be revoked anyway. They smashed his window and dragged him out of the car to place him in full-body shackles, the complaint says.
He has a “spotless record,” his lawyers said, and is in the U.S. under the H-1B visa program, which is valid through September 2027. Even after one agent confirmed his visa through a database, they took him to an ICE facility in Burlington, Massachusetts.
Mr. Carvajal-Muñoz, who is originally from Colombia, said that his detainment was race-based targeting.
“Federal agents came to Maine and terrorized entire communities, just as they have done throughout the country,” he said in a statement. “All people should be free to move about their communities safely, knowing they will not be violently arrested by masked agents simply for driving while Latino. I came to Maine to study engineering and work hard. Even though I followed all the rules, federal agents targeted me based on my race.”
He is suing five federal agents, four of whom were masked and have not been identified. They were employed or contracted by the Department of Homeland Security at the time and were allegedly involved in his arrest.
The Washington Times reached out to DHS for comment.
The suit is based on the Maine Civil Rights Act, which allows people to file claims for violations of their rights under the Constitution by “any person, whether or not acting under color of law.”
“The law should provide a remedy for what happened to Mr. Carvajal-Muñoz,” Matthew Segal, co-director of the ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative, said in a statement. “If federal law doesn’t, state law still can. And in Maine, it does.”
Mr. Carvajal-Muñoz is seeking damages for the “physical, mental, financial and reputational” harms of the agents’ actions to “redress grave constitutional violations.”
Mr. Carvajal-Muñoz’s lawyers argue that agents knew only his physical appearance and that his car was registered in his name.
He fears that he could be racially profiled again and arrested by federal agents, the complaint says.
He said that he hopes the lawsuit will “prevent agents from violating other people’s constitutional rights so the United States can fulfill its promise of being a beacon of freedom, opportunity, and safety for all people.”
