The Department of Homeland Security says immigration officers are arresting accused criminals, the “worst of the worst.” But a federal lawsuit argues authorities are regularly jailing and deporting immigrants who are survivors of human trafficking, domestic abuse and other crimes.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court on Oct. 14 says that a new U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement policy disregards legal protections previously established by Congress to protect immigrant crime survivors and allows ICE to detain and deport them even when they have been granted formal permission to stay in the U.S.

ICE is also targeting immigrant crime survivors who have pending applications for protections, according to a 76-page complaint.

In a statement to McClatchy News on Oct. 20, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin referred to the lawsuit’s accusations as “clickbait,” adding that “Every illegal alien ICE removes has had due process and has a final order of removal — meaning they have no legal right to be in the country.”

The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, one of the organizations representing eight individual plaintiffs, said in a news release that ICE’s new policy is “dehumanizing, unjust, and illegal” and “enables the widespread jailing and deportation of immigrant survivors.”

“The 2025 guidance reverses course from decades of agency practice under which immigration agencies generally refrained against enforcement against survivors of serious crime, unless warranted by adverse factors,” attorneys for the lawsuit wrote in the complaint.

According to the lawsuit, ICE’s new policy violates measures that were put in place by Congress to allow immigrant crime survivors to pursue legal status under the Violence Against Women Act, the “U visa,” and the “T visa.”

The Violence Against Women Act allows domestic violence survivors to petition for immigrant visas, the complaint notes. The U visa lets victims of serious crimes who help authorities in the investigation of those crimes apply for legal status. The T visa grants legal status, known as “survivor-based benefits,” to labor or sex trafficking survivors.

Plaintiff Jackie Merlos, 48, applied for a U visa, then received permission to stay in the U.S. in December 2024 after she and her husband were held at gunpoint outside their home in Portland, Oregon in June 2023, the complaint says.

Merlos, who is from Honduras, has lived in the U.S. for 22 years and is a mother of four U.S. citizen children, a 7-year-old and 9-year-old triplets, according to the complaint.

She is on deferred action status, meaning she is allowed in the U.S. for a certain period of time, the complaint says.

Despite this, ICE is detaining her at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, and refusing to release her from its custody, according to her attorneys.

Merlos has been in immigration detention since June 2025, when she had a family reunion with her parents, who were visiting from Honduras on a visa, and her sister’s family, at a park near the Canadian border, according to the complaint.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrived at the park and detained everyone, including Merlos, her children and her 71-year-old mother, according to the complaint.

CBP let Merlos’ sister, who legally lives in Canada, go a day later, the complaint says.

Merlos and her children were detained together in CBP custody for two weeks before she was separately transferred to ICE custody in July, according to the filing.

In a statement, Merlos said: “As the agent was processing us, as my children were sobbing, he said to us, ‘Do you know why you’re here? Because you are a criminal.’”

Merlos remains detained, without her children, and fears her husband has since been deported, the complaint says.

Her children are now being cared for by a friend, according to the National Immigration Law Center, which is advocating for her release.

So is Oregon Congresswoman Maxine Dexter, who said in an Oct. 16 news release that an immigration judge has terminated Merlos’ deportation proceedings, acknowledging that there is no reason for her to stay in ICE custody.

“Thanks to immense public pressure and a community that refused to stay silent, we not only stopped Jackie’s deportation and freed her children, but we also secured a ruling that there is no legal basis for ICE to detain or deport Jackie,” Dexter said in a statement.

“However, Jackie’s fight is not over,” Dexter added.

Merlos and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are also represented by Public Counsel, La Raza Centro Legal and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.

The lawsuit seeks to secure the release for all plaintiffs in ICE custody, and for the return of plaintiffs who have been removed from the U.S.

“Now, because of this administration’s unlawful actions, immigrants are not reporting violent crimes, including domestic violence, rape, trafficking, and assault, out of fear of being turned over to the deportation machine,” Rebecca Brown, a supervising attorney in Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement.

“Worse still, survivors are being separated from their families — and in some cases being sent straight back to their abusers,” Brown added.

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