Overview
- The ACLU and partner groups filed a 42‑page motion Monday that includes body‑worn camera clips and forensically recovered text messages they say show agents using slurs such as “wet” and “tonk” to identify and target people.
- Depositions in the filing quote agents describing the look they seek in racial terms, for example “older Hispanic male,” and one internal ICE email from May 2025 urged more “collateral” arrests and to “turn the creativity knob up,” which plaintiffs say shows policy driving non‑target arrests.
- Plaintiffs asked the court for a preliminary injunction to bar stops based on perceived Latino appearance except when tied to a known target description, and Judge Maame E. Frimpong set a status hearing for Sept. 24 to weigh the request and discovery disputes.
- The government has been slow to produce phone data that could contain more evidence: about 1,400 agents were tied to the operations, more than half reported using personal phones, only 88 volunteered devices and officials reported imaging roughly three government phones every two weeks.
- DHS denies the allegations and defends its agents as protecting the public, but the filings and slowed compliance raise prospects of contempt or other court orders and deepen scrutiny of whether enforcement practices violate the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.