Gonzalez v. Department of Homeland Security

Under the second Trump Administration, the Department of Homeland Security has engaged in excessive, violent and reckless immigration activities, resulting in thousands of people being taken into custody. Many of these individuals have been held in inhumane conditions for months.

But DHS has continued to harm even those released from custody by refusing to return personal property ICE (a part of DHS) seized when it took them into custody. When the government obtains someone’s property, it must return those items when its interest in them expires, even if it initially took control of the items lawfully.

DHS routinely flouts this obligation. It has adopted a de facto policy of keeping property seized from people it detained for civil immigration purposes long after any plausible governmental interest in the items expired. This case challenges DHS’s conduct on behalf of seven people and a class of similarly situated individuals. ICE detained each of the named plaintiffs, stripped them of important property, and failed to return their items months after their release. ICE failed to return Employment Authorization Documents and other important documents, along with items such as cell phones and car keys. As a result, the plaintiffs have lost work opportunities, feared going out in public (because they don’t have identification, which could lead ICE to detain them again), and suffered other forms of personal and economic hardship.

The plaintiffs bring this case to regain the items DHS withheld from them and ensure that the agency comports with its legal duties when handling property in the future.

We are pleased to partner in this case, filed in the federal district court in the District of Columbia, with the ACLU of DC, Democracy Defenders Fund, Platkin LLC, and Wilkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.