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The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in US District Court for the Western District of Texas on behalf of 15 immigrants arrested in Texas under the program.
Prosecutors argue in part that the trespassing arrests under Operation Lone Star “regularly lack probable cause”, are “discriminatory on the basis of race and national origin, including perceived status as an immigrant,” and that discrimination violates constitutional rights.
They also argue that the trespass arrest program is one aspect of Texas’ “wider effort” to illegally usurp federal law and “unilaterally create state immigration policy and unilaterally engage in immigration enforcement without the authority or oversight of the federal government.”
The lawsuit is asking for $5.4 million in damages. It also asks the judge, among other things, to declare that federal law preempts Operation Lone Star, and to order the defendants to stop the operation.
Among the defendants on the list are Abbott and Kinney County in Texas, a county along the US-Mexico border. CNN reached Abbott’s office and heard no response. Kenny County, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice have sent letters to CNN saying that the departments do not comment on pending lawsuits.
The lawsuit alleges that more than 5,000 people were arrested in the process
The suit alleges that the state “established a separate criminal prosecution and detention system” for immigrants arrested in the process — one with “separate criminal offenses, separate public defense assignments, separate prisons (converted state prisons), and even a separate “criminal” facility. Processing immigrants ‘in custody’.
This system has led to civil rights abuses, “including false affidavits of probable cause, failure to hire a lawyer, failure to file charges in a timely manner, excessive incarceration, and even unilateral substitution of judges,” the lawsuit said.
The suit states that “the arrest records show profiling based on race/color, national origin, and/or immigration status, including with numerous descriptions of observing or receiving reports of ‘illegal immigrants’.”
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