Lawsuit alleges racial profiling in Trump mass deportation campaign

Brentwood resident Rene Antonio Benitez was driving his 17-year-old daughter to school in February when immigration agents pulled him over because of his skin color, he contends in a federal class action lawsuit filed Wednesday seeking to stop the federal government's mass deportation campaign.

Benitez says he was obeying traffic laws and was stopped because his darker hair and skin led agents to believe he was Hispanic and didn’t have legal immigration status.

"It’s unfair that only because of looking or sounding Hispanic, that only for that, they detain you," he said in an interview in Spanish. "I don't feel safe anymore."

Benitez is one of several Long Island residents who are plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit that says immigration agents are illegally targeting people based on their skin color and creating a "state of siege" in immigrant communities.

Five of the eight plaintiffs in the lawsuit are from Long Island communities: Brentwood, Hempstead, Wyandanch, Farmingdale and Greenport.

"The Trump Administration’s sweeping campaign of suspicion-less stops and warrantless immigration arrests without probable cause is terrorizing New York communities and tearing families apart. This lawsuit seeks to end these unlawful policies and practices," the lawsuit states.

 "Across the state, roving bands of masked and heavily-armed federal agents, both on foot and in unmarked cars, are indiscriminately stopping and arresting thousands of Black and Brown people, the vast majority of whom are Latino, based solely on their perceived race and ethnicity," according to court papers. 

Heading to work

The lawsuit also cites the case of a Wyandanch man detained while he walked across a parking lot on his way to work, and also that of a Greenport man arrested as he waited to take the Shelter Island ferry to work. Agents had no arrest warrants in any of the cases, the lawsuit states.

It also cites two immigrants from Hempstead and Farmingdale who were arrested even though they had protection from deportation due to a Special Immigrant Juvenile Status they had been granted.

"This policy of racial profiling is illegal and unconscionable," New York State Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement supporting the lawsuit. "New Yorkers should be able to go about their daily lives without fear of being targeted by masked federal agents because of the color of their skin."

The lawsuit names officials and agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

ICE did not return a request for comment. The agency has previously said it follows the law.

It’s unclear how successful the lawsuit will be. In September, the Supreme Court ruled that federal immigration agents in Los Angeles can for now, while litigation slowly plays out, use a person’s apparent race or ethnicity in deciding whether to stop and briefly detain them.

The new lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York by a coalition of immigrant advocacy groups and civil rights organizations that include The Legal Aid Society, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Make the Road New York and Covington & Burling LLP.

"According to the complaint, ICE and CBP agents, together with other federal agents cooperating with them, are unlawfully stopping and arresting thousands of Black and Brown people — the vast majority of whom are Latino or Hispanic — in an effort to meet the Trump Administration’s sky-high immigration arrest quotas," the groups said in a statement.

Arrest numbers increase

Agents arrested 2,888 noncitizens in the metropolitan area in the first six months of the second Trump administration alone, more than triple the number of arrests in the last six months of the Biden administration, the groups said. Since then, arrest numbers have increased even more, they said.

On Long Island, immigration arrests reached a historic high in January, with 352 ICE arrests in January marking a peak in the monthly numbers for the period covering October through early March, Newsday has reported.

"Targeted communities are living under a state of siege," the lawsuit states.

President Donald Trump says the deportation campaign is targeting dangerous illegal immigrants, but studies have shown most of those arrested have no criminal record. The campaign has stoked controversy around the country, especially after agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January.

Paige Austin, supervising litigation attorney of Make the Road NY, said in an interview with Newsday that the deportation campaign involves "a lot of people being pulled over for driving while Latino or driving while brown."

"This lawlessness must come to an end, and the federal government must be held accountable for its abuse of authority" by racially profiling Latinos, Meghna Philip, director of the special litigation unit at The Legal Aid Society, said in a statement.

Agents asked Benitez if he wanted to self-deport after taking him into custody. Benitez, who had been living in Brentwood since 2023, said no.

He had never been arrested and he still works at an area restaurant. He was detained for 36 hours, the lawsuit states.

When he was released, Benitez said he hoped to regain some sense of normalcy, though the incident has shaken him and his family.

Benitez says he continues to drive though he’s always anxious about the vehicles around him.