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A civil engineer in Portland is suing federal immigration agents who arrested him earlier this year, alleging they violated his constitutional rights by racially profiling him, using excessive force and not having a warrant.

Juan Sebastián Carvajal-Muñoz was detained during a weeklong U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Maine. The Department of Homeland Security has said it arrested more than 200 people during the surge.

Carvajal-Muñoz, a Colombian citizen who was in the U.S. on a specialty work visa, was driving to his job on Jan. 22 when federal agents cut in front of his car, according to his lawyers, including attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine and D.C. and from Gideon Asen and the Law Office of James Wagner.

Gov.uscourts.med.70333.1.0 by emilycovering

Agents broke his window, pulled him out and left the vehicle running in the middle of the street in downtown Portland.

Carvajal-Muñoz is suing five federal agents, who were employed or contracted with ICE at the time and allegedly played a role in his arrest, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Portland on Tuesday. Carvajal-Muñoz is seeking damages for “physical, mental, financial and reputational” harms.

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In a statement from the ACLU, Carvajal-Muñoz said he hopes the lawsuit will “prevent agents from violating other people’s constitutional rights so the United States can fulfill its promise of being a beacon of freedom, opportunity, and safety for all people.”

“I came to Maine to study engineering and work hard,” Carvajal-Muñoz said. “Even though I followed all the rules, federal agents targeted me based on my race.”

A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the complaint was filed.

People who saw the arrest told the Maine Monitor, which first reported on the incident in January, that agents shattered Carvajal-Munoz’s window using a crowbar.

Recent data from the federal government, analyzed by a group of academics and lawyers known as the Deportation Data project, shows that a majority of those taken into custody during the operation in Maine did not have criminal convictions. DHS had said it was targeting criminals who were in the country illegally.

Carvajal-Muñoz has no criminal history, according to his lawyers.

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“People in the United States have the right to go about their daily lives without being suddenly and violently abducted because of their skin color or ethnicity, or for no reason at all,” his attorneys wrote in the complaint. “This suit seeks to vindicate that right and to redress grave constitutional violations.”

The lawsuit is filed against an agent identified as Jack Cory Ravencamp and four others — three men and one woman — who were masked and haven’t yet been identified, according to the complaint.

Ravencamp did not immediately respond to a message to his ICE email address seeking comment on Tuesday. No attorneys were listed yet in court records for him or other agents.

None of the officers, including Ravencamp, identified themselves to Carvajal-Muñoz, according to the Maine ACLU. A spokesperson said their legal team identified Ravencamp by reviewing publicly available information.

Carvajal-Muñoz’s lawyers argued in the complaint that agents knew only his physical appearance and that his car was registered in his name. When he offered to show them his Real ID, which his lawyers said was given to him as a noncitizen with documented legal status, agents reportedly told him that his visa would be revoked.

The federal agents drove Carvajal-Muñoz around southern Maine for more than an hour, stopping at various locations, including the Home Depot in South Portland, a Dunkin Donuts in Gray and a parking lot near the railroad tracks in Biddeford, according to the complaint.

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In Biddeford, he boarded a van with more than a dozen other detainees. The vehicle stopped in Kittery, when, according to the complaint, the driver received a text asking about Carvajal-Muñoz.

More agents came and took Carvajal-Muñoz back to Portland, near the area where he was arrested that morning. Instead of releasing him, the complaint states, the agents drove him around before bringing him back to another van in Biddeford.

Carvajal-Muñoz felt that agents only did that to mock him, according to the complaint.

From Biddeford, the complaint says, he was taken to the Burlington ICE field office, where he was held for about an hour in a single cell with 20 to 30 other detainees. He was held in a windowless cell without furniture or showers, with poor airflow, according to the complaint. Immigration attorneys and advocates have previously raised concerns about conditions at the field office this year.

Agents told Carvajal-Muñoz he was free to leave around 9 p.m. on Jan. 22 and he had to figure out his own way home, his lawyers said.

He paid for a cab, according to the complaint, which took him to the Concord Coach lines station where he boarded a bus back to Portland, returning at midnight.

Emily Allen covers courts for the Portland Press Herald. It's her favorite beat so far — before moving to Maine in 2022, she reported on a wide range of topics for public radio in West Virginia and was...

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