Castañon Nava Settlement News (ICE Sweeps)

NIJC, OCAD, ICIRR, Feb. 8, 2022

"The use of illegal traffic stops and arrest practices by federal immigration enforcement officials will be curtailed under a settlement resolving a lawsuit brought by Chicago area residents detained in ICE sweeps in 2018. Today, the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois approved a class action settlement which will require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to end its practice of making unlawful “collateral arrests” through vehicle stops and other community enforcement actions in Illinois and five other Midwestern states. Under today’s settlement in Castañon Nava et al. v. Department of Homeland Security et al., ICE must implement new policies nationwide to prevent officers from making arrests and vehicle stops that violate statutory and constitutional limits, and fully document the circumstances under which they make vehicle stops and community arrests. ICE also must end the practice of stopping drivers under the guise of traffic violations which, as the class action plaintiffs described, were based on thinly veiled racial profiling that targeted Black and Brown communities."