On June 15, longtime New Haven resident Nancy Martinez announced the filing of a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of herself and her children, seeking damages for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in arresting her in front of her children in June 2025. Yale Law School’s Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic (WIRAC) represents Martinez and her children in this lawsuit. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal ’73, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, and community leaders joined Martinez for a press conference at Yale Law School.
The lawsuit seeks redress for ICE’s behavior on June 9, 2025. According to the clinic, soon after Martinez started the family car to take her children to school that morning, unmarked SUVs and masked ICE officers surrounded the family. Within minutes, the officers handcuffed Martinez and drove her away in one of the SUVs. ICE detained Martinez for more than a month before deporting her to Mexico.
Martinez brings this suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), alleging tortious conduct by the ICE officers that arrested and detained her. The complaint alleges that ICE officers acted intentionally to cause Ms. Martinez and her children severe emotional distress and that ICE unlawfully deployed these aggressive tactics to terrorize the greater New Haven immigrant community. The complaint also alleges that ICE undertook targeted enforcement actions in New Haven and Connecticut in retaliation for public safety policies such as the Trust Act and a New Haven ordinance with which the Trump Administration disagrees.
“Nothing can prepare a mother for the sight of her children crying out for her as she is cornered and driven away by masked officials,” said Martinez, who joined the press conference via Zoom from Mexico City, Mexico. “From the moment we were separated, I have yearned to hold my children through their heartbreak, confusion, and loneliness as well as my own.”
“Today’s lawsuit demands accountability for the ways that ICE’s lawlessness has changed the Martinez family forever,” said Karley Nadolski ’28, a law student intern in the Clinic. “Congress authorized members of the public who are injured by a federal official to seek redress under the Federal Tort Claims Act. By having the courage to share their pain and fight for justice, the Martinez family has already shown that ICE violence is unacceptable in New Haven and everywhere.”
“Nancy was simply taking her children to school when ICE cruelly ripped her away from her family leaving her kids unattended, unsure of when they’d see their mother again or who would care for them,” said Sen. Blumenthal. “ICE should be held accountable for their illegal, aggressive detention of Nancy last June. I am grateful to the Yale clinic for bringing this action to help rein in ICE’s misuse of their law enforcement authority — abusive tactics that state and local law enforcement reject. I will keep demanding strong federal reforms to curb ICE’s reckless lawlessness.”
“Attempting to apprehend and disappear a mother while taking her children to school is simply unconscionable. President Trump’s inhuman immigration policies and ICE’s deplorable and often illegal enforcement tactics are antithetical to our values as a city — and, in my view, un-American,” said Mayor Justin Elicker. “New Haven is leading the charge nationally in standing up to the Trump administration and ICE’s illegal, immoral, and inhumane actions, and we will continue to stand up for any resident who wants to be a productive member of our community. Our immigrant neighbors are part of our New Haven family, and we support the Martinez family as they seek relief from the harm caused by ICE’s cruelty.”
“This country runs on the backs of immigrants, yet too often we are alienated from our own communities by political fearmongering,” said John Jairo Lugo, co-founder and community organizing director of Unidad Latina en Acción. “ICE violence traumatizes entire communities, but it takes the greatest toll on the families who are directly affected. It remains important to us that the Martinez family, and all others who have been similarly affected by ICE violence, knows that they are not alone.”
“ICE is continuing its dangerous and destructive assault on communities across Connecticut,” said a volunteer with the New Haven Immigrant Coalition. “ICE takes our neighbors, their families are left traumatized, and our community is tasked with protecting each other and repairing what ICE broke. ICE should be held accountable for the pain and suffering it causes.”
“The treatment that Nancy Martinez and her family have received is morally repugnant and wrong,” said Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center. “Immigrants in this country have rights, and when those rights are trampled on by government actors it becomes the job of we the people to fight back.”
The Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic is part of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School.
https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/clinic-represents-connecticut-family-over-ice-arrest
