Court rules against immigration officers’ ‘knock and arrest’ practice

Image: ACLU website/AP Photo by Jae C. Hong

LOS ANGELES – Immigrant rights advocates were handed a victory by a federal judge in Los Angeles who ruled that a practice by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of conducting warrantless searches by impersonating local law enforcement was “unconstitutional,” it was announced Thursday.

US District Judge Otis D. Wright II granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment Wednesday in a set of claims concerning ICE‘s “knock-and-talk” practice in Kidd v Mayorkas, a class-action lawsuit challenging the allegedly deceptive home arrest practices in Los Angeles and the surrounding region.

The lawsuit was filed four years ago by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California on behalf of Osny Sorto-Vasquez Kidd, a Hacienda Heights man and recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and two community organizations that alleged ICE officers routinely wear uniforms labeled “police” and identify themselves as federal immigration officers only after making an arrest.

“Everyone should feel safe in their own home, regardless of immigration status,” said ACLU staff attorney Stephanie Padilla. “Because ICE never has judicial warrants, they primarily rely on `knock and talks’ to conduct home arrests. This order should significantly curtail ICE’s unconstitutional home arrest practices.”

An ICE representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The plaintiffs alleged in federal court that ICE officers “routinely trespass on community members’ porches and other private areas surrounding their homes … without permission or a judicial warrant,” the suit states.

According to the ACLU, Kidd was arrested by ICE officers in October 2018 after the agents “used deception to enter his home without a warrant or valid consent and to persuade him to exit his home.”

Kidd was subsequently detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Facility for more than two months, until his release in December 2018. “During that time, Mr. Kidd was separated from his husband and family, who faced severe financial stress and the threat of eviction from their home without Mr. Kidd’s financial support,” the lawsuit states.

The judge’s order gives examples of four instances from February 2017 to April 2020, where ICE unlawfully entered constitutionally protected areas around a community member’s home, called the curtilage, with only an administrative immigration warrant and not a warrant signed by a judge. In those cases, ICE agents had allegedly entered a covered porch area, private patio, or backyard to get to the entrance of a home and make contact with a resident for an arrest.

Angelica Salas, executive director of plaintiff the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said the organization “is proud to have represented community members who were subject to illegal arrests by ICE in their own homes. In addition to tearing countless families apart in their own homes where the Constitution’s protections extend to all, ICE’s `knocking and arresting’ method diverted limited community resources and harmed CHIRLA’s ability to provide services to the community. We hope and expect that this practice will soon end across the entire country.”

The order rejects ICE’s argument that they could enter the private areas surrounding community members’ homes to knock on the door because other members of the public, such as a neighbor or delivery person, routinely do so.

While agents would have been permitted to enter these areas if their purpose was merely to ask questions of residents, with residents’ consent, according to the court, the Constitution prohibits them from encroaching upon these areas “with the intent to arrest.”

The ACLU alleged in the 2020 lawsuit that ICE continued its “troubling home arrest practices” even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which California residents were ordered to shelter in place at home.

The order clarifies that while the “knock-and-talk” practice, as defined by the US Supreme Court, is considered constitutional, the practice as defined and executed by ICE is not. Wright stated in his ruling that ICE’s practice can be more accurately termed “knock and arrest,” which “violate the Fourth Amendment.”

The order applies to ICE’s Los Angeles Field Office, which covers the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. (CNS)