ACLU Comment on Supreme Court Decision to Hear Muslim Ban Challenge

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives today passed an appropriations bill that would renew ICE’s excessive budget, with no strings attached, adding to the over $170 billion in taxpayer funds already allocated for immigration enforcement in July 2025. This bill also comes amidst public fear and outrage in response to widespread abuses and violence by ICE and Border Patrol, including their continued, escalating assault on Minneapolis. Recent public opinion polling in the wake of the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis shows ICE’s approval rating is at its lowest since President Trump took office in January 2025. If passed in the Senate, the bill would signal a stamp of approval for ICE, even as the agency continues to operate with impunity and growing disregard for constitutional rights. In response to this news, Kate Voigt, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, had the following reaction: “The House vote in favor of excessive funding for ICE with no meaningful accountability measures is wildly out of touch with polling that shows the majority of voters oppose ICE and Border Patrol’s attacks on our communities. The bill fails to rein in ICE and Border Patrol at a time when they are engaged in an unprecedented assault on our rights, safety, and democratic way of life. The billions in funding in this bill will only embolden ICE and CBP to continue arresting our neighbors – immigrant and U.S. citizen alike – no matter the costs to our communities, economy, and integrity of our Constitution. “While the House narrowly passed this bill, we thank the Members of Congress who held the line and voted against this harmful legislation. Now we need our Senators to hold firm and refuse to be complicit in fueling ICE’s reckless abuses in our communities.”

EL PASO, Texas – A harrowing Washington Post report released Thursday found that the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old father detained at an immigration detention camp at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX, will likely be ruled a homicide due to asphyxiation after a witness at the facility claims they saw guards choke him to death. The report comes weeks after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that Lunas Campos died at the facility after alleging staff “witnessed him in distress.” “The death of Geraldo Lunas Campos is the latest in a string of preventable deaths by ICE and illustrates a broader pattern of unchecked violence and abuse carried out by ICE against members of our communities on the taxpayer’s dime,” said Haddy Gassama, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “The record breaking 32 deaths in ICE custody last year marked the deadliest year for the agency in nearly two decades. These deaths in detention facilities, coupled with the continued escalation of violence by federal agents in our streets, paint a grim picture of what happens when a government agency has an astronomical budget and no accountability. We cannot allow these deaths to become daily occurrences or this violence to continue to be inflicted – and we need Congress to shut down the Fort Bliss detention camp once and for all.” In December 2025, the ACLU and human rights groups sent a letter to ICE demanding end immigration detention at Camp East Montana, a massive tent camp at the Fort Bliss military base. Within their letter, advocates described a disturbing pattern of abuses, including beatings and sexual abuse by officers against detained immigrants, beatings and coercive threats to compel deportation to third countries, medical neglect, hunger and insufficient food, and denial of meaningful access to counsel, among other rights violations. The Trump administration hastily opened the sprawling tent camp in August 2025, despite warnings from members of Congress and advocates that the facility would be a humanitarian disaster. The facility is located on the military base formerly used to intern people of Japanese descent during World War II and currently holds over 2,700 people, making it the country’s largest immigration detention center.

MINNEAPOLIS — The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Minnesota, Covington & Burling LLP, Greene Espel PLLP, and Robins Kaplan LLP filed a class-action lawsuit today against the Trump administration on behalf of three community members — and a class of similarly situated people — whose constitutional rights were violated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection(CBP), and other federal agents. Over the past six weeks, the Trump administration has increased its deployment of federal forces by the thousands. Masked federal agents in military gear have ignored basic human rights in their enforcement activity against Minnesotans, especially targeting Somali and Latino communities. The Trump administration has been clear in its targeting of the Somali and Latino communities through Operation Metro Surge. President Trump called people from Somalia “garbage,” said “we don’t want them in our country,” and told them to “go back to where they came from.” Following Trump's comments, ICE and CBP agents have indiscriminately arrested — without warrants or probable cause — Minnesotans solely because the agents perceived them to be Somali or Latino. In their lawsuit, the three Minnesotans challenge the administration’s policy of racially profiling, unlawfully seizing, and unlawfully arresting,people without a warrant and without probable cause. This is a violation of Minnesotans’ constitutional rights to equal protection and against unreasonable seizures. Plaintiff Mubashir Khalif Hussen is a 20-year-old U.S. citizen. On Dec. 10, 2025, he was walking to lunch in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood when he was stopped by multiple masked ICE agents. When Hussen realized he was being stopped by ICE, he began repeating, “I’m a citizen. I’m a citizen.” But the agents refused to look at Hussen’s ID. ICE agents put Hussen into an SUV and drove him to the Whipple building in south Minneapolis. Only after being shackled, having his fingerprints taken, and showing a photo of his passport card to an individual at the Whipple building was Hussen let go. “At no time did any officer ask me whether I was a citizen or if I had any immigration status,” said Hussen. “They did not ask for any identifying information, nor did they ask about my ties to the community, how long I had lived in the Twin Cities, my family in Minnesota, or anything else about my circumstances.” “ICE and CBP’s practices are both illegal and morally reprehensible,” said Catherine Ahlin-Halverson, staff attorney with the ACLU of Minnesota. “Federal agents’ conduct — sweeping up Minnesotans through racial profiling and unlawful arrests — is a grave violation of Minnesotans’ most fundamental rights, and it has spread fear among immigrant communities and neighborhoods. No one, including federal agents, is above the law.” “The government can’t stop and arrest people based on the color of their skin, or arrest people with no probable cause,” said Kate Huddleston, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “These kinds of police-state tactics are contrary to the basic principles of liberty and equality that remain a bedrock of our legal system and our country.” “The massive presence of ICE agents as part of Operation Metro Surge has disrupted civic life in the Twin Cities. Minnesotans are at risk of being stopped by ICE while going to work or shopping for groceries,” said Greene Espel attorney Kshithij Shrinath. “We will continue to stand with our community and the rule of law.” If you have been questioned, stopped, arrested, or detained by ICE where the officers did not have a warrant or where the encounter appeared to be the result of racial profiling, visit aclu-mn.org/ice-feds-form. The complaint is here: https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/01/COMPLAINT-HUSSEN-v.-NOEM-1.pdf  

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Minnesota, Covington & Burling LLP, Greene Espel PLLP, and Robins Kaplan LLP filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration on behalf of three community members — and a class of similarly situated people — whose constitutional rights were violated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and other federal agents.