2,044 events on record Subscribe September 10, 2026
Standing Record home The Standing Record A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —
and the events that erode them.

ICE agents stopped and arrested J.R.H.L. while he was walking to work in Wyandanch, New York

On June 7, 2025, ICE agents in Wyandanch, New York, stopped a man identified in court filings as J.R.H.L. while he was walking to work, arresting and detaining him without a judicial warrant for approximately two months. His arrest is one of eight named in the April 2026 class-action lawsuit Benitez v. DHS, which alleges ICE and CBP agents have conducted a systematic pattern of warrantless stops and arrests of Latino residents across New York based on race and ethnicity.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Wyandanch, New York

Abuses documented

Actors

On June 7, 2025, ICE agents in Wyandanch, New York, stopped a man identified in court filings as J.R.H.L. while he was walking to work. The agents arrested and detained him without a judicial warrant. J.R.H.L. was held for approximately two months before being released.

His arrest is one of eight documented stops described in the complaint filed April 8, 2026, in the class action Benitez v. DHS, brought by Legal Aid Society, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Make the Road New York, and Covington & Burling LLP. The suit alleges that ICE and CBP agents have carried out a systematic pattern of warrantless stops and arrests of Latino residents across New York City and Long Island, relying on apparent race and ethnicity as the basis for stops in violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.

Updates

2026-04-08 — Benitez v. DHS filed in EDNY naming this arrest among eight documented instances [1, 2]

Legal Aid Society, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Make the Road New York, and Covington & Burling LLP filed the class action Benitez v. DHS (2:26-cv-02082) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The complaint documented this arrest alongside seven others as evidence of a systematic pattern of warrantless ICE and CBP stops and arrests targeting Latino residents across New York City and Long Island based on race and ethnicity.

Why we recorded this

ICE agents stopped a man identified as J.R.H.L. while he was walking to work, with no articulable criminal suspicion, before arresting and detaining him for approximately two months without a judicial warrant. Stops of pedestrians based on apparent ethnicity without reasonable suspicion violate the Fourth Amendment. This entry records a documented warrantless street stop and extended detention of a civilian by federal immigration agents.

Sources

  1. Legal Aid, NYCLU, Make the Road NY, and Covington & Burling LLP File Class Action Lawsuit Against DHS for Unlawful Stops, Warrantless Immigration Arrests, and Racial Profiling of New Yorkers — Legal Aid Society / NYCLU primary accessed July 26, 2026
  2. New Lawsuit Accuses ICE of Racially Profiling New Yorkers During Immigration Arrests — The City investigative accessed July 26, 2026

See also