Immigration Agent Accountability Under the Federal Tort Claims Act

We filed five administrative claims against the federal government on behalf of people who suffered abuse at the hands of rogue federal immigration agents. The filings are part of a coordinated nationwide effort by the ACLU involving 54 claims across 17 states and Washington, D.C.

The five administrative claims were filed on behalf of two individuals and one family who suffered abuse at the hands of federal agents. The claims collectively seek over $5 million in damages, and they were filed with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In one case, masked agents took a man from his Maine home and detained him in Massachusetts for 43 days with no justification. In a second case, an individual was racially profiled, violently arrested, and unlawfully detained after agents smashed his car window. In the third, ICE agents violently broke a man’s driver's side window, spraying broken glass over the man and his family. After violently dragging him out of his car, ICE unlawfully detained him for three weeks.

Across the country, the ACLU is fighting back against the Trump administration’s illegal conduct by filing claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), one of the few legal tools available to seek financial compensation for wrongdoing by federal government employees. Through this coordinated effort, ACLU affiliates are representing dozens of people and families who are seeking justice for the harm they experienced at the hands of federal immigration agents.

Each of the 54 FTCA claims that have been filed tells an individual story of someone who was brutalized by immigration agents. Together, they reveal a widespread pattern of civil rights violations and abuse carried out by officials nationwide, affecting people who are immigrants, U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, families, workers, and people exercising their constitutional rights.

Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, federal law enforcement agents have terrorized communities and shown a blatant disregard for the law. The consequences have been deadly. Conditions in ICE facilities are so inhumane that the rate of deaths in ICE custody has more than doubled since Trump’s term began, reaching its highest level in over a decade. In early July, reporting revealed that, after the White House pushed to increase arrest rates, ICE officials detained more than 10,000 people in five days. Only days later, ICE agents in unmarked vehicles shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas while he was on his way to work. The following week, a federal agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine.

Earlier this month, the ACLU released a report analyzing immigration enforcement actions in the first year of President Trump’s second term. The report, Agents of Chaos and Cruelty, examines more than 1,200 immigration enforcement incidents across eight states and found that more than 400 of those incidents involved misconduct by immigration agents, including excessive force, racial profiling, intimidation, and abuse.

See the full nationwide campaign for accountability and claims from across the country.

The ACLU of Maine’s claims seek accountability for violent arrests that led to prolonged detention with no legal justification. The accounts use pseudonyms to protect client safety.

ICE arrested Mr. Diallo, an asylum seeker living in Maine, while he was driving home with his family. Several years earlier, ICE had released Mr. Diallo on his own recognizance. Since then, Mr. Diallo had complied with all conditions of release. However, ICE agents stopped Mr. Diallo after randomly encountering him in traffic and detained him without any contemporaneous warrant or probable cause to believe he presented an escape risk.

During the stop, ICE agents violently broke the driver's side window, spraying broken glass over the entire family, including a baby. After violently dragging Mr. Diallo out of his car, ICE detained him for three weeks until he was able to obtain an attorney who filed a successful habeas petition. The violent and senseless incident was traumatic for the entire family.

On January 20, 2026, masked agents came to Elias Tesfaye’s home and arrested him during the surge in operations known as “Operations Catch of the Day.” Mr. Tesfaye had been living and working in Maine for over a decade. Since being released from ICE custody in 2013, he had complied with all the terms of his release.

Despite his compliance, masked agents took him from his home, handcuffed him, and transported him to Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts. After nearly a month in detention – during which he developed PTSD, had a panic attack, and was prescribed Prozac that he must take to this day – Mr. Tesfaye was finally able to contact a lawyer.

His lawyer filed a habeas petition on his behalf, arguing that the federal government had no justification for detaining him. The government never even attempted to justify its decision to arrest Mr. Tesfaye. Instead, ICE released him without ever responding to the habeas petition.

Mr. Tesfaye was ultimately released on March 3, 2026, forty-three days after his groundless arrest. More than six months after he was wrongly arrested, Mr. Tesfaye still feels intense anxiety every time he hears a knock on the door.

On January 22, 2026, an individual was racially profiled, violently arrested, and unlawfully detained after agents smashed his car window. He was dragged out of his car, handcuffed, and taken to an ICE facility.