The ACLU has filed an official lawsuit against the United States Government… over three suspected gang members being detained. The suit filed against U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and some federal immigration agencies states that the three teenager potential gang members were unlawfully detained on “suspicion of being gang members without substantiation,” the New York Times reported.
“If you’re Hispanic and in the Brentwood area here, and you’re a young kid who came here recently, you’re living in a police state,” Bryan Johnson, a lawyer for one of the teenagers, told the reporter. “Anything you do, you go to school, you’re under investigation.”
As reported by Breitbart:
On August 2, an ACLU staff attorney posted a blog post responding to President Donald Trump’s comments made to a group of law enforcement officers in Brentwood, New York, Breitbart Texas reported. He wrote:
Last week, flanked by police officers in Long Island, President Trump told a crowd of supporters his administration was getting rid of immigrant ‘animals’ who were causing gang violence in their communities. ‘They’re going to jails,’ Trump yelled, ‘and then they’re going back to their country. Or they’re going back to their country, period.’
The writer adds:
But at least nine children from Suffolk County are being held in highly restrictive detention based solely on unconfirmed suspicions that they are affiliated with gangs. Despite the lessons of history, the Trump administration is once again arbitrarily jailing children.
Trump’s comments and the ongoing enforcement action taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local law enforcement is in response to a significant number of MS-13 related homicides occurring in the community. MS-13 gang members carried out 17 brutal murders over the past 18 months in Suffolk County.
“Gang violence in our communities is real, and it must be addressed,” California ACLU attorney William S. Freeman told the Times. But, he added, “we can’t address gang violence by violating the Constitution.”
Breitbart Texas reached out to ICE officials who responded, “As a matter of policy, ICE does not comment on pending litigation. However, lack of comment should not be construed as agreement or stipulation with any of the allegations. In DHS’s homeland security mission, our trained law enforcement professionals adhere to the Department’s mission, uphold our laws while continuing to provide our nation with safety and security.
The lawsuit claims ICE detained three teens suspected of being gang members. They claim the allegations are unfounded. In one case, a teen wrote the El Salvador country code, 503, in a notebook. That number is linked to MS-13, the Times admitted. Brentwood High School suspended the teen following the incident. Police in Brentwood arrested the teen on a charge of suspicion of disorderly conduct. After making bail, ICE officers took him into custody.
Police arrested a second teen suspected of “killing someone,” the lawsuit states. Lawyers claim they stopped him only because he wore an El Salvador soccer jersey.
