Community Members and Immigrants’ Rights Organizations Take Trump Administration to Court to Stop Illegal Arrests of Immigrants

Four Washington, D.C. community members and the national immigration organization CASA sued the Trump administration today on behalf of themselves and a class of similarly-situated individuals, alleging that the federal government has engaged in a pattern of illegal immigration arrests since August.

In their lawsuit, the residents challenge the administration’s policy of arresting people without a warrant and without probable cause of unlawful immigration status and flight risk, as required by immigration law. Agents can arrest someone without a warrant only when they’ve established probable cause that the person is in the United States in violation of the law and that they are a flight risk. The filing alleges that federal agents have systematically arrested people in Washington, D.C., without a warrant and without probable cause.

People who have experienced these illegal arrests will speak at a virtual press conference on Friday, September 26, 2025, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. Reporters can RSVP at the following link.

Each person who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit was indiscriminately arrested without a warrant, detained, and ultimately released. The national immigration advocacy organization CASA is also a plaintiff in the case. Its members have been impacted by the illegal arrests, and the organization has had to divert resources from its core social service work to engage in crisis response for people in detention.

The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, American Civil Liberties Union, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, CASA, National Immigration Project, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, and the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP.

“On my way to a life-saving dialysis appointment, I was detained by ICE one mile from the hospital. They ignored my U.S. driver’s license and left me without critical treatment that day, putting my health in immediate danger,” said Elias, a CASA member. “I was detained for over eight hours without food or access to my necessary medicine. Since then, I have lived in fear that I could be torn from my family and deported to a place where I cannot get the medical care I need to survive. No one should be treated this way. I am standing up in this lawsuit to make sure ICE is held accountable and stops these unlawful arrests from destroying more lives.”

“Families should not have to live in fear that simply walking to school, going to work, or attending a doctor’s appointment will result in being abducted and dragged away by federal agents without cause,” said Adina Appelbaum, program director of the Immigration Impact Lab at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “ICE’s wide-sweeping arrests in D.C. are not just cruel; they are blatantly unlawful. No one, including federal agents, can operate above the law, and the government must be held accountable. This lawsuit seeks to ensure that immigrant families in the District are treated with the dignity, fairness, and due process that every community member deserves.”

The lawsuit has been filed as a class action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The residents seek a court ruling to prevent the government from conducting such unlawful arrests against them and others in the future.

“The government’s policy and practice of arresting people without probable cause are illegal and have disrupted everyday life in the District,” said Aditi Shah, staff attorney with the ACLU of the District of Columbia. “The policy and practice disregard important limits Congress has established for immigration arrests and have sown terror among immigrant communities and neighborhoods in D.C. Federal agents, like the rest of us, must follow the law.”

In August, President Trump declared a “crime emergency” in D.C. that led to significant deployments of federal law enforcement agents, including ICE agents, to patrol the District and invoked a clause in the Home Rule Act that allowed the Department of Justice to direct the Metropolitan Police Department to assist with immigration law enforcement. While the declared emergency period has expired, the federal government has continued its aggressive immigration arrests in the District.

“For weeks, immigrant communities in D.C. have been living in a state of terror and disruption caused by a policy of indiscriminate targeting being carried out by immigration officials,” said Yulie Landan, staff attorney with the National Immigration Project. “D.C. residents deserve better. Through this lawsuit, our plaintiffs seek the court’s intervention to put an end to this dragnet enforcement, which is not only unlawful but also cruel and inhumane.”

“CASA members who live and work in D.C. are being targeted by immigration officials simply for existing,” said Ama Frimpong, legal director at CASA. “With this lawsuit, our members are making it clear: they have had enough of the federal government’s lawlessness and abuse of power. They will not be intimidated or silenced. They will continue to fight until the government is held accountable.”

“The federal government has created a culture of fear in D.C., including among U.S. citizens and immigrants with legal status,” said Madeleine Gates, associate counsel at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. “People are justifiably afraid to go to work or even to walk their kids to school. We are determined to end this unlawful policy.”

The complaint filed in this case, Escobar Molina et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al., is available here: https://www.acludc.org/app/uploads/2025/09/Escobar-Molina_complaint_stamped.pdf