Man detained at Tacoma ICE center with US passport on him settles federal lawsuit
A man who was in possession of his United States passport when he was detained for a week at an immigration facility in Tacoma has settled his lawsuit against the federal government.
The government agreed to pay Carlos Rios $125,000 to settle the case, according to a news release Tuesday from the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
The organization represented Rios in the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle earlier this year.
“I cannot understand why I was detained and why no one listened to me,” Rios said in the news release. “I had my U.S. passport with me when I was detained, and I told this to the immigration officers many times. Even now I still feel sad about what happened ‘cause it caused me so much harm, to my family, my job. I hope they don’t do this to anybody else.”
Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday about the settlement.
Rios became a U.S. citizen in 2000. He was arrested Nov. 17, 2019 on suspicion of driving his motorcycle under the influence, and two days later immigration officials took him into custody when he was released from the Pierce County Jail, according to the lawsuit.
They allegedly refused to look at his passport or release him, and they transferred him to the privately owned and operated Northwest Detention Center (now called the Northwest ICE Processing Center) on the Tacoma Tideflats.
“Mr. Rios’s time in detention was made worse by his placement in solitary confinement, exhibiting a shocking disregard for his rights as a U.S. citizen,” the news release said.
They held him there until they took him to the Tukwila ICE office Nov. 26, 2019, according to the lawsuit.
“After collecting his biometrics and reviewing his records, Mr. Rios recalls a sudden change of tone in the way the surrounding officers addressed him,” the lawsuit alleged. “They were very polite as they explained that he would be released immediately, and even asked if they could help him arrange for transportation. Mr. Rios asked if the officers would pay the $700 necessary to reclaim his impounded motorcycle, but the officers refused to do so.”
The lawsuit alleged Rios had to find another job, pay the $700 impound fee, couldn’t send money to family in Mexico and couldn’t visit them for Christmas.
“Mr. Rios is another example of what happened during the Trump administration — where immigration officers felt empowered to blatantly trample constitutional rights,” Matt Adams, legal director for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said in the news release. “Immigration officers do not have the authority to arrest someone based on a hunch or suspicion — and certainly not based on a person’s apparent race, ethnicity, or the language they speak.”
