New York Times, Metro, Friday Sept. 21/07

Immigration Raids Single Out Hispanics, Lawsuit Says
Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Adriana Aguilar, second from left, and her mother, Elena Leon, rear, whose home was raided, are suing. With them are Ms. Aguilar’s children Erika, left, and Carson.
By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: September 21, 2007
A federal lawsuit filed yesterday charges that agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement unlawfully force their way into the homes of Hispanic families in the New York area without court warrants or other legal justification, sometimes pushing down doors in the middle of the night, in search of people who do not live there.

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Go to City Room » The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Manhattan as a class action, accuses the immigration agency of conducting the raids in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches, harming citizens and legal residents of the United States as well as foreigners here illegally.

The 15 plaintiffs — all but one are residents of Suffolk County and seven of them are United States citizens — describe abusive predawn raids on their homes this year by armed immigration agents. They seek an order prohibiting I.C.E. from conducting home raids until the agency develops clear guidelines to end unlawful entries, and unspecified damages.

According to the complaint, the raids are part of a program called Operation Return to Sender that was started in 2006 to arrest and deport “fugitive aliensâ€