LA immigration activist sues, says DACA rejection was ‘retaliation’
LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles immigration activist whose arrest last year sparked protests and allegations of misconduct against federal law enforcement officials is now suing the Department of Homeland Security, claiming her application for protection from deportation as a “Dreamer” was unfairly rejected on the basis of her activism.
Claudia Rueda, a 23-year-old California State University, Los Angeles student, filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday alleging that the government violated its own policies in rejecting her application under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in October of last year.
“The only discernible difference between Ms. Rueda and the hundreds of thousands of others who have been approved for DACA status is her political speech and activism against Defendants’ immigration practices,” the lawsuit said.
Rueda first gained attention across Southern California in May 2017, when she and six others were arrested outside her home by agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
At the time, Rueda and other local activists claimed she was arrested in retaliation for her advocacy on behalf of her mother, Teresa Vidal-Jaime, who had been swept up in a drug raid carried out by the Border Patrol and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department a month earlier. Although law enforcement officials said Vidal-Jaime had nothing to do with the alleged drug activity, she was held on a civil immigration violation.
Rueda led protests objecting to her mother’s detention, and Vidal-Jaime was released from federal custody on May 12, 2017, over the objections of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Border Patrol arrested Rueda outside her home six days later, and she spent several weeks in federal custody.
A spokeswoman for the Border Patrol’s San Diego field office would not immediately comment on the suit. The Department of Homeland Security referred questions to the Department of Justice, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Attorneys representing Rueda said her complaint is the first lawsuit challenging a rejected application under DACA, an Obama-era program that has protected nearly 800,000 young immigrants in the country illegally after they were brought to the United States when they were children.
The DACA program has been the subject of intense legal fights since last year, with the Trump administration seeking to end the program despite polls showing a majority of Americans oppose the idea of deporting the so-called Dreamers.