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ICE officers beat disabled Sunnyvale man Ulises Peña López unconscious during 2025 arrest, lawsuit alleges

On February 21, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Ulises Peña López, a disabled carpenter, outside his home in Sunnyvale, California, and, according to a federal lawsuit filed in July 2026, beat him in front of his wife and young daughter before taking him to a nearby alley and continuing until he lost consciousness and had to be hospitalized. The suit says GEO Group and CoreCivic, the private contractors that ran the detention facilities where he was held for more than six months, failed to accommodate his disability, and that he suffered a stroke and a heart attack in custody that left him partially paralyzed. He was deported to Mexico in October 2025.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Sunnyvale, California

Abuses documented

Actors

On February 21, 2025, officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Ulises Peña López, a carpenter who lived with a pre-existing neurological condition, outside his home in Sunnyvale, California. According to a federal civil-rights complaint and Peña López's own account, the officers beat him in view of his wife and young daughter, then took him to a secluded alleyway nearby where they continued to assault him until he lost consciousness and had to be hospitalized. ICE has denied that its officers beat him.

Peña López was held for more than six months across the Golden State Annex and California City immigration detention facilities in Kern County, California, operated by the private contractors GEO Group and CoreCivic. The complaint alleges the contractors failed to accommodate his disability and that he suffered a heart attack and a stroke in custody, emerging partially paralyzed on his right side and reliant on a cane, with impaired vision and hearing. He was deported to Mexico in October 2025. The Department of Homeland Security has said its facilities provide medical care as a matter of standard practice.

Updates

2026-07-06 — Peña López sued ICE, DHS, and detention contractors over the arrest and custody [1, 2]

Peña López filed a federal lawsuit against ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, GEO Group, and CoreCivic, brought by Pangea Legal Services and Disability Law United, alleging excessive force during his arrest and disability discrimination and medical neglect during his detention.

Why we recorded this

Accountable use of state force and humane treatment in custody are core limits on government power, binding regardless of a person's immigration status. A federal civil-rights lawsuit alleges that immigration officers beat a disabled man unconscious during his arrest and that the private contractors operating his detention failed to accommodate his disability, during which he suffered a stroke and a heart attack that left him partially paralyzed before he was deported. This archive records when the use of force in immigration enforcement and the conditions inside detention are challenged as exceeding lawful bounds and evading independent accountability.

Sources

  1. Sunnyvale Man Deported to Mexico Sues Trump Administration — KQED primary accessed July 10, 2026
  2. Sunnyvale man sues ICE and private prison companies over alleged mistreatment in detention — KALW investigative accessed July 10, 2026

See also