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ICE officers can’t impersonate local law enforcement in home arrests following settlement
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents apprehend a man in 2022. A settlement in federal court means agents can't impersonate local police or construct ruses in their operations.
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Irfan Khan
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
)
Topline:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers cannot identify as local law enforcement when attempting to make home arrests and cannot use “deceptive ruses” in order to conduct immigration enforcement operations.
The details: The change comes after a settlement was approved Monday by a federal judge in L.A. and applies to ICE agents attempting to make home arrests. The “ruses” covered under the settlement don’t just include impersonating local law enforcement — ICE agents are also banned from telling residents that there’s an issue with their vehicle in order to lure them outside of their home, for instance.
Where this applies: The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the plaintiffs, said the settlement covers the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo — the counties under the jurisdiction of ICE's L.A. Field Office.
The backstory: The class action lawsuit isn’t one of the many filed after immigration raids began here in June. It was filed in 2020 on behalf of an individual and two groups: the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.
What the parties are saying: CHIRLA’s executive director, Angelica Salas, said in a statement that this settlement is essential to protect homes “when roving patrols of masked federal agents have illegally been disappearing people and separating families on our own streets.” LAist has reached out to ICE for comment.
What's next? “We’ll be monitoring to ensure ICE does not violate the rights of our community members,” ACLU staff attorney Diana Sanchez said in a statement.
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Go deeper: Read the full settlement here.
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