A lawsuit claims that Washington, D.C. police assisted ICE in arresting a 37-year-old-man who was merely picking up his stolen car at the station.
Jose Argueta, 37, alleges that ICE arrested him in early December based on information he provided on a stolen vehicle report. He was apprehended at the station after receiving a call to claim the vehicle.
Alleged Police Sting Traps Man at Stolen Car Pickup
'They tricked me into coming to the station to arrest me,' he said, per The Washington Post. 'I was just trying to get my car back, but it was all a lie.' In the lawsuit, Argueta stated that the caller who claimed to have found his car was someone from the Washington, D.C. police department.
One of the agents who handcuffed Argueta had the word 'ICE' on his shirt, Argueta noted in his sworn declaration. They told him he was staying in the U.S. illegally, based on identifying information in his report.
Argueta said he spent about a month in multiple detention centres. He was released in early January after posting bond. 'I am very angry and traumatised from what happened,' he stated, asserting that it's the first time he was arrested. "I don't want this to happen to other people.'
D.C. Police Accused of Aiding ICE Arrests
Argueta's experience is but one of multiple, similar accounts of warrantless arrests documented in the lawsuit. One account detailed how a man was stopped in January for expired motorcycle plates. Only one of the two arresting officers wore a D.C. police uniform.
The man, who went under the pseudonym 'Benito Lopez,' said they went to the station to process the violation. He was given a court schedule and was allowed to leave when two officers in green vests appeared.
'You are done with them but not with us,' the agents allegedly said, identifying themselves under the Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE. 'At no point was I presented with a warrant or told how ICE knew to come get me at the police station at that moment,' Lopez claimed.
'These examples are people that would not have entered federal immigration detention if it were not for [D.C. police] actively assisting ICE,' Austin Rose, Amica Centre for Immigrant Rights attorney, said in a statement.
'I don't know if the collaboration is formalised or whether it's just happening, but either way, I think it's violating D.C.'s laws,' Rose added.
Sanctuary Law Raised Amid Warrantless Arrests
The lawsuit add to mounting criticism against the Washington D.C. police department, which is now being questioned for its adherence to the city's sanctuary law. The latter limits collaboration between local police and federal immigration authorities, regarding the location, personal information, and custody details of persons of interest.
More federal agents have been deployed in D.C. since President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in August. That same month, the former police chief gave officers the prerogative to share information about people not under their custody, particularly to federal immigration agents.
D.C. administration acknowledged the presence of a joint task force to that effect, but asserted their police department is not focused on immigration enforcement.
