A San Bernardino woman is suing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after she spent a day in ICE custody. The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and a law firm on behalf of Guadalupe Plascencia, who repeatedly told ICE agents that she was an American citizen. Plascencia, who is 60 years old, spent the night of March 29, 2017 in jail because of a decade-old bench warrant related to her alleged failure to appear as a witness in a court case. She claims that a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy asked her to sign documents that night acknowledging that officials with ICE had inquired about her immigration status. Apparently, Plascencia was met by immigration enforcement agents, handcuffed and placed in the back of a van as she was trying to leave the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on March 30, 2017.
Plascencia was fearful that she would be mistakenly deported while she was in ICE custody, despite becoming a citizen nearly 20 years ago. The lawsuit was filed last month against the federal immigration agency and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, claiming that Plascencia was detained without probable cause, on the basis of her ethnicity. San Bernardino Sheriff’s Cpl. Ruben Perez previously said that ICE issued a detainer request for Plascencia on the same day she was to be released from jail and that sheriff’s officials did not contact ICE or inquire about Plascencia’s immigration status, because it would be against department policy. Plascencia is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive relief for her ordeal. It is going to be interesting to see what the ruling in her lawsuit will be.
