A Honduran man who was deported from the U.S. earlier this year has sued the City of Houston, claiming Houston Police Department (HPD) officers unlawfully detained him for 2 hours before he was taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, according to the federal lawsuit.
Erick Lopez, 29, filed the lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The suit alleges his Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments were violated when HPD allegedly held him after pulling him over for a suspected traffic violation.
The lawsuit comes several months after the City of Houston adopted and thenrevisedan ordinance that sought to limit HPD’s coordination with ICE as well as how long local police officers could hold someone with a civil immigration warrant while waiting for ICE. The ordinance was amended after a funding threat by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and HPD subsequently issued a department directive enabling officers to “wait a reasonable amount of time” for ICE to “obtain custody” of people with civil immigration warrants.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Lopez's attorney, Randall Kallinen, said HPD's holding of Lopez while officers awaited ICE agents constituted unlawful detention, false arrest and unreasonable search of person and vehicle.
"The City of Houston promised stuff like this wouldn't happen, but now reports have come out that there are more people than just Erick," Kallinen said. "There are many people who are being held for long periods of time for these administrative warrants. These are not criminal warrants; they are not decided by a judge ... they're a bureaucratic piece of paper."
Neither the city attorney nor the office of Houston Mayor John Whitmire immediately responded to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit.
In April, after the ICE-related ordinance was amended, City Attorney Arturo Michel told the city council that officers would be unable to detain people solely due to civil immigration warrants, saying that would violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.
At approximately 10 p.m. June 17 — nearly two months after the aforementioned police department directive — HPD officers stopped Lopez for allegedly failing to yield at a stop sign, according to Kallinen.
The narrative laid out in the lawsuit claims Lopez showed the officers his Honduran identification card when asked to hand over his driver's license. The officers then allegedly searched his vehicle without probable cause and had his vehicle towed, according to the lawsuit.
The officers then allegedly contacted ICE and informed the federal agency they had stopped a Honduran citizen and held him there for "at least two hours" before ICE arrived and took Lopez into custody, according to the lawsuit.
According to Kallinen, Lopez had lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years and was working in home flooring. He also had a pending case in immigration court at the time of his detention, the attorney said. After being taken into ICE custody, Lopez was transported to an ICE detention facility in Montgomery County before being deported to Honduras on June 27, according to Kallinen.
The lawsuit cites damages including mental anguish, "loss of consortium and enjoyment of life," lost wages and opportunity, and attorney's fees. The lawsuit did not name a specific monetary amount in terms of requested relief.
Kallinen also said he is seeking to have the case turned into a class-action lawsuit, alleging that HPD has wrongfully detained others as officers awaited ICE.
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