The residents' complaint seeks wide relief including a court order to halt DHS' practice of arresting North Carolinians without a warrant while not meeting warrantless arrest criteria under federal law. The residents also are asking the court to declare DHS' warrantless arrest policy unlawful.
DHS has accelerated an immigration crackdown across the state, with armed and masked federal agents in combat-style outfits roaming the streets of cities, indiscriminately demanding proof of citizenship and holding people without warrants or legal justification, the residents say.
In doing so, DHS is violating Section 287 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the residents say. That law prevents warrantless arrests unless there's both probable cause that the person is removable from the country, and an immediate escape risk.
The complaint names DHS and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its Commissioner Rodney S. Scott; and the U.S. Border Patrol and its chief Michael W. Banks. Also named is Todd Lyons as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Sean Gallagher as ICE field office director in Atlanta.
Four of the named plaintiffs, Yoshi Cuenca Villamar, Willy Wender Aceituno, Yair Alexander Napoles and Edwin Godinez, are U.S. citizens, and the fifth, Ruben Arguera Lopez, is a valid visa holder, according to the complaint. They're represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other nonprofits.
Each was subjected to a warrantless arrest without probable cause, some of which left them with serious injuries and damaged property, according to the complaint. Had any "escape risk" analysis been, federal agents would have seen that they have deep family and community ties and a long history of local employment, they say.
The complaint recounts each plaintiff's arrest in vivid detail, including screenshots of the incidents from bystanders' recordings.
Aceituno, who has lived in North Carolina for 25 years, was pulled from his truck, forced to the ground and handcuffed after he'd already provided his REAL ID, according to the complaint.
Agents never asked Aceituno about his family, community ties or employment history. After they drove him around and ran his ID again, they released him but refused to take him back to his car. He was bloodied and felt like he was going to pass out, the suit says.
Now Aceituno has anxiety, flashbacks and neck pain. He's afraid to leave the house and struggles to watch the news, as it surfaces his deep fear of running into immigration agents, according to the complaint.
Villamar was arrested while working on a home for his lawn care business. Lopez, a cook in a local restaurant, was boxed in by SUVs on his way to work and repeatedly questioned. Nursing home worker Godinez was pinned against his seat and punched in the abdomen after being pulled over, according to the complaint.
All plaintiffs say they had psychological trauma after the encounter, like trouble sleeping or watching the news, anxiety and fear of leaving the house.
They're seeking to represent a class of people who have been, or will face, similar warrantless immigration arrests by DHS in North Carolina, and two subclasses.
The complaint highlights that CPB officers have confronted hundreds of North Carolinians while they simply walked down the street, ran errands or went to work. DHS agents circled public areas with high concentrations of Latino residents in unmarked SUVs, detaining people they just happened to come across.
As in other DHS operations around the country, arrest tactics in North Carolina have included smashing car windows, storming church property and dragging employees from their workplaces, the complaint says.
Federal agents also ignore proof of immigration status before handcuffing and transporting them miles away to dump them on the side of the road, they said. Masked agents refuse to identify themselves, even when asked directly.
From Jan. 20 to Oct. 15, 2025, ICE arrested 3,304 people in North Carolina. That's nearly three times as many as in the same period last year, the suit says.
North Carolinians have already been harmed, they said. Many Latino residents are afraid to leave their homes for prescriptions or groceries, out of fear of being racially profiled and arrested.
In mid-November, a day when CBP agents deployed operation "Charlotte's Web," more than 30,000 students were absent from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Durham Public Schools reported a 68% increase in student absences that week, according to the lawsuit.
Upon returning to school, some Latino children had notes pinned to their backpacks that said, "I am a citizen," according to the lawsuit.
Religious leaders are reporting a drop in church attendance, and some business owners have shut down due to fear of being arrested or seeing their employees arrested, they said.
DHS has already acknowledged in public statements that agents use the lower "reasonable suspicion" standard, not "probable cause," to make arrests, alongside not evaluating escape risk, the complaint says.
Federal agencies have also disregarded longstanding practices like DHS's Broadcast Policy and ICE's Field Operations Worksheet, both of which put up safeguards and requirements for immigration-related arrests, the suit says.
Federal courts in Oregon, D.C. and Colorado have already blocked those types of arrests, according to the complaint. Meanwhile, these dragnet tactics are being deployed in cities like Minneapolis, Chicago and Los Angeles.
The residents are asking the court to certify the class and subclasses, declare the arrest practices unlawful and vacate policies backing those arrests. They also want the court to order DHS to expunge all records related to the arrests.
A DHS spokesperson told Law360 in a statement Wednesday that allegations of racial profiling are "disgusting, reckless and categorically false."
"What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. — not their skin color, race, or ethnicity. There are no 'indiscriminate' stops being made. DHS conducts enforcement operations in line with the U.S. Constitution and all applicable federal laws without fear, favor, or prejudice," the spokesperson said.
"Federal immigration agents have consistently ignored the law and trampled civil rights in North Carolina," Corina Scott, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, said in a Tuesday statement. "This lawsuit seeks to stop this abuse of power and demand accountability going forward so that our communities do not continue to suffer violent and unlawful arrests."
The residents are represented by Spencer Amdur, Oscar Sarabia Roman, Kathryn Huddleston and Lucia Goin of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Immigrants' Rights Project, Jacob H. Sussman of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Kristi Graunke, Corina Scott and Jaclyn Maffetore of the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation and Johanna M. Hickman, Adnan Perwez, Steven Y. Bressler and Brian Netter of the Democracy Forward Foundation.
Counsel for the government was not immediately available.
The case is Aceituno et al. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al., case number 3:26-cv-00146, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
--Editing by Brian Baresch.
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