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The
Rhode Island Affiliate of the ACLU has filed
a federal lawsuit against the Rhode Island State Police, challenging the
legality of the detention and transporting to immigration officials of
14 Guatemalan nationals who were stopped in a van on I-95 on July 11,
2006, after the driver changed lanes without using a turn signal. The
lawsuit, filed Jan. 8, 2007, on behalf of eleven of those detained,
argues that the actions by the state police violated the state’s Racial
Profiling Prevention Act, as well as the driver’s and passengers’
constitutional rights to be free from discrimination and from
unreasonable searches and seizures.
According to the ACLU’s presentation of the facts,
the state trooper who stopped the van first confirmed that the driver’s
registration and license were valid and that he had no criminal record.
The trooper nevertheless opened the vehicle’s doors and, with the driver
interpreting, asked all the passengers to also present their IDs. When
some did not produce any, the trooper asked them if they had any
documents demonstrating that they were U.S. citizens, and no one was
able to produce any. Ultimately, the trooper advised the passengers
that they all would be escorted to the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement office in Providence. According to the complaint, he
instructed the driver that if any passenger attempted to escape from the
van en route to Providence, the passenger would be shot.
The suit argues that the defendants “knew or
should have known that the search, seizure and detention of the
Plaintiffs were without reasonable or probable cause and were therefore
unlawful under the circumstances.” The suit seeks a declaratory
judgment that the defendants violated the constitutional rights of the
driver and passengers, and an award of damages and attorneys’ fees.
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