Engineer Alleges Rights Violation in Controversial DHS Detainment: A Deep Dive into the ‘Abduction’ Claims

A Maine resident has filed a lawsuit accusing federal agents of violating his civil rights through racial profiling and a violent arrest during an immigration enforcement effort. The lawsuit, initiated this week, sheds light on the alleged misconduct during the operation.

On January 22, agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were involved in an operation dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day” in Portland. During this mission, federal agents, armed and ready, apprehended Juan Sebastián Carvajal-Muñoz, a civil engineer holding a legitimate H-1B visa, as he was en route to work, according to the legal complaint.

Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Carvajal-Muñoz claims that the actions of the immigration officers—some identified and others unnamed—were not only unjust but alarmingly harsh.

The complaint details a dramatic scene: “They cut in front of Sebastián’s car, smashed his window, forcibly removed him from the vehicle, handcuffed him, and abandoned his car still running in the middle of downtown Portland.”

Despite presenting his REAL ID and documentation proving his lawful immigration status, the lawsuit alleges that the agents disregarded Carvajal-Muñoz. Instead, they kept him in their unmarked van for several hours. The ordeal, as described in the lawsuit, only intensified from there.

“[The DHS agents] refused to release him despite instruction to do so, and instead locked him in a windowless cell in an ICE facility in Massachusetts,” the lawsuit reads. “As abruptly as the agents had abducted him, they released him in Burlington, Massachusetts, after 9 p.m. that night, leaving him to find his way back home.”

The nine-count lawsuit is premised on multiple legal theories including myriad alleged violations of the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, and Maine’s own civil rights law.

At the heart of the 31-page complaint is the claim that Carvajal-Muñoz was “abducted” by DHS agents who “had no basis for the stop other than his apparent race, skin color or ethnicity.”

And such a reason for his stop, arrest, and subsequent detention, is a violation of the “Fifth Amendment equal protection guarantee, which requires that all people be treated equally under the law without regard to race, ethnicity, or national origin,” the lawsuit argues, as well as the Maine Civil Rights Act, which offers similar protections.

“Defendants intentionally interfered with Sebastián’s Fifth Amendment equal protection rights by physical force or violence, by damage to property, and by engaging in conduct that would cause a reasonable person to suffer emotional distress or fear bodily injury,” the complaint goes on.

The vast majority of the claims, however, are premised on Fourth Amendment violations. Such allegations dovetail with the argument that DHS agents abducted Carvajal-Muñoz for no reason other than his name — linked to his registered vehicle — and what he looked like.

The lawsuit explains how the enforcement operation in question, while premised on apprehending the “worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who have terrorized communities,” ended up doing very little of the sort. In fact, “[o]ut of 192 people arrested during the operation, just 12 had criminal convictions,” the lawsuit notes.

The government hauling in Carvajal-Muñoz, who has a government job and no criminal record, was especially unsupported, the plaintiffs say.

From the filing, at length:

Sebastián specializes in conducting soil and foundation analyses for the construction and repair of bridges in communities across Maine. Sebastián oversees subsurface exploration for Maine Department of Transportation-operated bridges, solar projects, and residential areas and supports preparing geotechnical reports and calculation packages for these projects…

Sebastián has maintained lawful immigration status throughout his time in the United States, first on an F-1 student visa and then on an H-1B specialty occupation visa available to individuals who possess highly specialized skills.

But, the litigation is not simply an effort to vindicate the plaintiff’s own constitutional rights. Rather, the legal effort suggests Carvajal-Muñoz’s treatment by DHS agents is perhaps indicative of other such immigrant roundups across the country. The plaintiff himself said as much in a statement announcing the litigation.

“Federal agents came to Maine and terrorized entire communities, just as they have done throughout the country,” Carvajal-Muñoz said, his language echoing that used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to justify “Operation Catch of the Day.”

“All people should be free to move about their communities safely, knowing they will not be violently arrested by masked agents simply for driving while Latino,” the plaintiff’s statement goes on. “I came to Maine to study engineering and work hard. Even though I followed all the rules, federal agents targeted me based on my race. I hope this case can prevent agents from violating other people’s constitutional rights so the United States can fulfill its promise of being a beacon of freedom, opportunity, and safety for all people.”

The lawsuit also contains a subset of four “Bivens” claims attached to the alleged constitutional and state law violations.

A Bivens claim, based on a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case involving a plaintiff of the same name, is a kind of lawsuit that allows citizens to sue federal government officials over constitutional violations. The path here, for the plaintiffs, however, is unclear as the Roberts court has all but overruled the Bivens doctrine.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for the “physical, mental, financial, and reputational harms and other harms and losses” caused by the agents’ conduct, punitive damages, expungement of Carvajal-Muñoz’s arrest record — if one exists — and attorneys fees.

Again, the filing, at length:

This abduction profoundly harmed Sebastián. He continues to fear that he could again be racially profiled and unjustly arrested by federal agents. Given the utter unlawfulness of the arrest, he worries that no amount of proof or documentation can keep him safe. Sebastián seeks compensatory damages arising from the unlawful arrest and detention, and punitive damages to deter future unconstitutional conduct.

“People in the United States have the right to go about their daily lives without being suddenly and violently abducted because of their skin color or ethnicity, or for no reason at all,” the lawsuit reads. “This suit seeks to vindicate that right and to redress grave constitutional violations.”