A coalition of attorneys, U.S. citizens, and a Democratic legislator has filed a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Council over alleged abuses by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The group claims the federal agency targeted Hispanic Americans and immigrants with legal status through aggressive and unlawful tactics.
According to the complaint, individuals were forcibly restrained, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed. Families reported intimidation by masked agents and the use of unmarked government vehicles. In one case, a U.S. citizen nine months pregnant was handcuffed because agents believed she was undocumented, in part due to her skin colour, her legal team stated.
Luis Carrillo, an immigration attorney based in Los Angeles representing nine U.S. citizens detained by ICE, described the operations as a “pattern of abuse.” He said, “In my 79 years, I have never seen abuses of this magnitude.”
The cases he handles in California are presented as examples of a nationwide trend under the Trump administration, which also deployed National Guard personnel to federal immigration facilities in cities with Democratic leadership resisting federal immigration policies.
The complaint references a September Supreme Court decision that overturned a ruling by federal judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, who had blocked indiscriminate ICE patrols in Southern California. The judge had found that the administration was conducting roving patrols without reasonable suspicion and denying detainees access to legal counsel.
Carrillo criticised the decision, stating that the ruling allowed ICE and Border Patrol agents to detain individuals based on skin colour, employment, or language spoken. His perspective aligns with dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who argued that such practices erode constitutional freedoms and enable racial profiling.
The UN petition describes the actions of federal law enforcement agents as causing a deterioration of human rights for the Latino minority in the United States. It details violent detentions of U.S. citizens based on skin colour and workplace, as well as actions against undocumented immigrants.
The petition calls for an investigation by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights into these alleged violations.