A summer of ICE activity yields a raft of new damages claims, including in NJ and NY

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The nation’s immigration enforcement summer has been punctuated by raucous and deadly encounters between federal agents and citizens and noncitizens alike. Now the dog days are bringing another kind of outpouring: a barrage of legal claims alleging injuries caused by the wrongful or negligent acts of ICE agents, including in New Jersey and New York.

American Civil Liberties Union chapters in both states joined with affiliates across 17 states and Washington, D.C., this week in filing a total of 54 administrative claims alleging harm caused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in encounters with immigrants and their family members, citizens and noncitizens, as well as an array of advocates and protesters.

In New Jersey, a claim tied to unrest outside the Delaney Hall ICE detention center in Newark on May 25, was brought by a nurse clinician, college professor and grandmother who alleged she was injured when masked ICE agents threw her to the ground in a skirmish outside the facility, which has been a flashpoint for clashes between federal officers and anti-ICE protesters.

In New York, according to an ACLU press statement, four claims were filed on behalf of people “who experienced racial profiling, unlawful arrests, and severe emotional distress.” One of the complainants alleged they were detained without due process and separated from their children, according to the ACLU statement.

All told, 29 U.S. citizens were among those filing claims, including a dozen alleging they were unlawfully detained after being racially profiled. The Supreme Court, in an emergency ruling last year, effectively allowed racial profiling as a tool in immigration enforcement, challenges in the lower courts continue.

“As the Trump administration continues to enable ICE agents to brutalize communities, it’s important we use every tool available to seek justice,” Jeanne LoCiero, legal director for the ACLU of New Jersey, said in a statement announcing the Garden State claim. It was brought by Norma Bowe, a volunteer who was running a mobile health clinic outside Delaney Hall when the alleged incident occurred.

The coordinated filings, brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act , illustrate the breadth and diversity of claims leveled at ICE agents and federal officers in communities across the country. Separately, agents face scrutiny over a wide range of incidents outside the reach of the administrative claims process, including criminal inquiries into fatal shootings of citizens and noncitizens by ICE agents in Houston, Minneapolis and Biddeford, Maine.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, released a statement to Gothamist that criticized the ACLU and decried what the agency said was a steep increase in attacks and threats directed at law enforcement officers. It accused the ACLU of being siding with “criminal illegal aliens.”

“When will the ACLU acknowledge the chaos and cruelty of anti-ICE agitators, criminal illegal aliens, and recognize the victims of illegal alien crime?” said the statement, attributed to DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. The statement, provided Friday, did not address the new administrative claims, including the New Jersey or New York claims.

The federal statute authorizes individuals to sue the U.S. government for money damages caused by the wrongful or negligence acts of federal employees acting within the scope of their employment who would otherwise be shielded from civil lawsuits by sovereign immunity protections.

The claims are decided by federal judges, not juries, and the act bars the award of punitive damages. Incidents cited in the ACLU cases allege injuries involving protesters struck by rubber bullets and sprayed with chemical irritants; people roughed up and detained – only to be released later when their U.S. citizenship was confirmed; and sundry claimed of mistreatment while in ICE detention.

Bowe, the claimant in the New Jersey case , whose confrontation outside Delaney Hall was previously reported by NJ.com, claimed in her filing that she suffered significant physical injuries when she sought to help a young woman who had been “dragged” along the ground during a melee.

She alleged that agents “threw” her forward so violently “she flew through the air and crashed to the ground, bouncing once before landing with her head on the concrete sidewalk and her lower body” striking the asphalt.

“ICE agents are acting like they have impunity and are inflicting harm however they want,” Bowe said in a statement. “Without accountability, more people will get hurt and die. ICE must be held responsible.”

The claim seeks $500,000 in personal injury damages.

Herb is the editor of the Race & Justice unit. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-922-2497.

The city posted a database of more than 900,000 properties that “may” be subject to the new surcharge.

Police said one of the victims was a member of his’ family, and he met others at the shelters.

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