Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Immigration raid leads to federal lawsuit

Bellevue family claims civil rights violated in 2007

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By TERRY SMITH
Express Staff Writer

Almost two years after a federal immigration raid in Blaine County, a Bellevue family claims that it is still suffering emotional distress from what the family alleges was an illegal search of their home.

"I am still totally upset because we were treated like we were in Iraq or something," said Dana Ayala, a Filipino native and U.S. citizen who has lived in the Wood River Valley since 1991. "They had no warrant when they barged into our house."

Ayala, her husband, Jesse, and their three children have now filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boise claiming that their civil rights were violated on Sept. 15, 2007. Named as defendants in the suit are the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the Blaine County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Walt Femling said Tuesday that he expects that his office will be removed from the lawsuit because deputies acted only as observers and were not participants in the searches and arrests made that day by federal ICE agents.

The Ayala's mobile home on Broadford Road in Bellevue was one of numerous locations visited by ICE agents in the raid. Searches and arrests were also made in Ketchum and Hailey. ICE officials reported in 2007 that 22 alleged illegal immigrants were taken into custody in Blaine County during the raid. Some of them were wanted on fugitive immigration warrants, while others were illegal immigrants encountered during the searches. Thirteen of the suspects were Peruvian and the other nine were Mexican.

ICE officials declined to release the name of the man they were searching for at the Ayalas' home, but Dana Ayala identified him as Luis Gonzales, someone she didn't know and who had never stayed at her home.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Ayalas by Hailey attorneys Keith Roark and Kevin Cassidy. The complaint alleges that the defendants violated the Ayalas' constitutional rights, illegally detained them, illegally inflicted emotional distress and illegally battered some of the family members.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants suffered "severe emotional distress, mental anguish, indignation, wounded pride, shame and despair." The Ayalas are seeking unspecified monetary damages.

"The home was searched and they were detained without a search warrant," Cassidy said Tuesday. "There was no one illegal in the home. They were all U.S. citizens or legal residents. It was traumatizing to them. They were extremely violated by the event.

"This was something that needed to be brought to the community's attention, that this sort of egregious behavior takes place."

Dana Ayala said ICE agents pounded on the door at 6:30 a.m., barged into the home after her 19-year-old son opened the door, traumatized the family and searched the home without permission.

She said agents entered with guns drawn and shoved both her son and husband onto a couch. The agents searched the home for about 35 minutes.

Ayala said her husband, Jesse, is a Mexican native with legal residency in the U.S. and that the couple's three children are U.S. citizens.

"I'm still angry," Ayala said. "I'm still angry about everything. You can't go into people's houses without a warrant."

She alleged that ICE agents used "racial profiling" in identifying the Ayala home as a place to search.

ICE spokeswoman Lori Dankers said Tuesday that she is unable to comment on pending litigation.

Femling said his officers were only observers and not participants. He said Sgt. Bryan Carpita was at the Ayala home that morning and reported that ICE agents conducted the search in a professional manner.

Femling said ICE had "several criminal alien warrants" and had information that one of the suspects it was seeking was staying at the Ayala home.

"They went in and they searched and he wasn't there so they left," Femling said. "His (Carpita's) report showed that they acted very professionally in what they did and that there was no incident at all."

Femling said he was in northern Idaho at a state sheriffs' meeting at the time of the raid and wasn't involved directly.

"We usually ask the feds, as a courtesy, to let us know when they're in the county working," Femling said. "That's what they did that day and we had officers along as observers."

Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com