The American Civil Liberties Union and two Colorado law firms sued federal immigration officials Thursday in an effort to stop what the legal groups call the agency’s “indiscriminate stops and arrests” across the state.

The lawsuit brought in federal court in Colorado alleges that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are arresting and detaining people because of their skin color, accent or perceived nationality to fulfill arrest quotas set by the Trump administration without determining probable cause and flight risk. 

The firms are bringing the lawsuit on behalf of four people, including Caroline Dias Goncalves, a 19-year-old University of Utah student who was brought to the U.S. as a child. ICE arrested Dias Goncalves in June after a Mesa County Sheriff deputy pulled her over in Fruita and asked about her accent and immigration status. She spent 15 days in ICE’s Aurora detention center.

“Our state’s 169,000 undocumented immigrants, and hundreds of thousands more Latine Coloradans, now live in fear and at daily risk because of federal immigration agents’ indiscriminate practices,” the lawsuit said. “ICE’s arrest scheme is tearing families apart and terrorizing communities.”

The lawsuit, brought by the ACLU of Colorado, Meyer Law Office and Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray, LLC, names three defendants: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Acting Director of ICE Todd Lyons and Director of ICE’s Denver Field Office Robert Guadian.

Read the full story at ColoradoSun.com/2025/10/09/aclu-colorado-law-firms-sue-ice-to-stop-indiscriminate-arrests-and-detentions.