Police Sued For Capturing Illegal Immigrants

A state police agency is being federally sued for racial profiling because a trooper apprehended more than a dozen illegal immigrants during a routine traffic stop four months ago.

When Rhode Island State Trooper Thomas Chabot confirmed that 14 Guatemalans in the van he had stopped for a traffic violation on Richmond’s Route 95 were illegal aliens, he contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A renowned civil rights organization accused Chabot of racial profiling and immediately demanded an investigation.

This week that organization, the ACLU, filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the Rhode Island State Police alleging that racial profiling and violation of the constitutional rights of 14 Guatemalan nationals during the stop led to their detention by immigration officials.

The lawsuit, which names the state of Rhode Island, the state police and state police Colonel Superintendent Steven Pare, says that the actions by the police violated Rhode Island’s Racial Profiling Prevention Act as well as the passengers’ constitutional rights to be free from discrimination and from unreasonable searches and seizures. Furthermore, the incident has encouraged a “chill” in the Latino community, according to the ACLU.

Keep Arkansas Legal reminds us that illegals have no constitutional rights and asks if the police should have let 14 unknown people go, just like they had to let Mohammed Atta go? American Patriot Journal Believes the federal lawsuit is designed to intimidate law enforcement departments across the nation. To be sure, the litigation will be costly for taxpayers.