The son of a Gary man soon facing deportation
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is suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in federal court for the “violent” and “aggressive” raid on their home last October, court filings show.“I want ICE to be held accountable that you cannot treat, who they assume are immigrants, however you want,” Arnoldo Carrillo said Thursday via text.
“This lawsuit metaphorically represents the immigrants who are too afraid or cannot get justice,” he added. “If they are willing to hurt me, a U.S. Citizen, youth pastor, Christian, imagine those who do not have a voice.”
Immigration agents raided his father Rosario Carrillo Lopez’s Gary home at around 6 a.m. Oct. 23, where he lived with his wife Martha Ruiz and three U.S. citizen children, Arnoldo, Sarai and Eli.
They arrested Carrillo Lopez, who was hiding on the roof over the back porch, plus his wife Martha, who was taken to an ICE facility in Texas before she was eventually released.
During the raid, Eli alleged he was thrown across the outside porch, hitting his head on a pole. His family later told him he was bleeding from his head. Arnoldo alleged that agents punched him, leaving him with a visible black eye days later.
Arnoldo and Sarai were later released. Eli, then 14, spent two weeks in juvenile detention.
Arnoldo’s attorney, Tricia Crabtree, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit alleges that when Arnoldo came to the door with his hands up, federal agents “immediately grabbed him and pulled him out of the front door, put him in a chokehold, punched him in the eye, and dragged him to the ground.”
They “had guns pointed at Plaintiff and told him that they would shoot him if he moved,” it states. Agents allegedly also “threatened to break (his teen) brother’s arm.”
An ICE spokesperson did not provide a response to a request for comment by presstime.
“My dad is just waiting for his deportation,” Arnoldo wrote. “We still visit him and enjoy our time speaking with him and will continue to do so until his time comes.”
Like other families in Gary, they were still without power Thursday morning after the Aug. 11 storms, Arnoldo said, but added he was grateful fallen trees “didn’t destroy any homes along our street.”
The lawsuit – filed Aug. 19 in the U.S. District Court in Hammond – asks for unspecified damages, plus attorney’s fees.