Miami ICE Officials, Homeland Security Sec. Named in Class Action Over Somalian Deportations

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

Seven plaintiffs have filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the below defendants on behalf of 92 individuals who the plaintiffs claim were subjected by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement—ICE—to “inhumane conditions and egregious abuse” during an aborted attempt to deport the proposed class by plane to Somalia:

• Juan Acosta, Assistant Field Officer Director, Miami Field Office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement;
• David Hardin, Sheriff of Glades County;
• Marc J. Moore, Field Office Director, Miami Field Office, Immigration Customs Enforcement;
• Thomas Homan, Acting Director, Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and
• Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security.

The complaint says “this case is an emergency,” given ICE’s alleged intention to put proposed class members on a contract flight to Somalia on Wednesday, December 20. The plaintiffs allege ICE means to take this action without providing proposed class members the opportunity to determine if they are entitled to legal protection—not to mention medical attention and assurances no one will be harmed—following the failed December 7 flight. During that episode, the plaintiffs allege, 92 men and women sat “bound and shackled” for two days on an ICE-chartered plane that left Louisiana for Somalia, but only made it as far as Dakar, Senegal, where the plane then sat on the runway for 23 hours.

The plaintiffs say that after sitting shackled on the runway in Senegal, with the plane’s toilets reportedly overfilled with human waste and left detainees urinating in bottles, ICE ultimately canceled the flight and flew back to the United States, landing in Miami. On December 9, detainees were reportedly transported to two ICE detention centers in South Florida.

The plaintiffs allege ICE agents, over a span of approximately 40 hours:

• Forced detainees to stay seated and chained at their wrists, ankles, and waists for the entire flight;
• Denied detainees movement to stretch and relieve swollen and numb legs and arms;
• “Kicked, choked, pushed, straightjacketed, threatened to kill, and berated” detainees; and
• Denied detainees bathroom use.

The complaint notes that the international media coverage surrounding the proposed class, due to ICE and its agents’ alleged conduct, combined with a recent uptick in anti-Western terrorist violence constitutes “unique, changed circumstance” as the petitioners may now be in danger of being targeted by Al Shebaab, an “anti-American, anti-Western” terrorist group. The lawsuit says the group is an ally of Al Qaeda that’s currently at war with Somalia’s government and “targets people…returning to Somalia after having been in the United States as enemies of their cause who must be summarily executed.”

The lawsuit argues proposed class members’ imminent removal to the volatile country puts them at grave risk and violates U.S. law forbidding the removal of individuals to countries where they would “face a likelihood of persecution or torture." 

The lawsuit asks the court to issue an order preventing proposed class members’ removal to Somalia until they are afforded a full and fair opportunity to seek the reopening of their removal cases; adequate treatment for injuries allegedly sustained on the December 7 flight; and adequate measure to ensure no abuse will take place on the next flight, including a guarantee that none of the ICE agents from the December 7 flight will be present.

The full complaint can be read below.