ICE agents smashed a lawfully present driver's car window and tased him during a Portland, Maine stop

On January 22, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in an unmarked SUV with Minnesota plates cut off Juan Sebastián Carvajal-Muñoz's car in downtown Portland, Maine, as he drove to work, then surrounded the vehicle and ordered him out. Carvajal-Muñoz, a civil engineer originally from Colombia holding a valid H-1B visa through September 2027, showed agents his REAL ID through the window — a document issued only to non-citizens with documented lawful status — and reached for his phone to call for help. An agent smashed the driver's-side window with a crowbar; a second, masked agent forced the door open and dragged him out while a third pointed a taser at him. Agents handcuffed Carvajal-Muñoz and drove off, leaving his car running in the street with the door open, his keys and bag inside, and his phone on the pavement.

The stop occurred during "Operation Catch of the Day," ICE's enforcement surge targeting Maine's Somali immigrant community, which the archive separately records. Agents drove Carvajal-Muñoz around Portland for more than an hour before stopping at a South Portland Home Depot, where one agent looked up his immigration status online and filled out an operation intake form and another photographed his face. Carvajal-Muñoz told agents he held a valid H-1B visa and had a copy of his Form I-94 in his wallet; an agent confirmed via database lookup that the visa was valid, but agents took his wallet without examining the physical document. Agents transferred him toward an ICE facility in Burlington, Massachusetts, holding him roughly 16 hours before releasing him that night.

Carvajal-Muñoz sued ICE agent Jack Cory Ravencamp and four then-unidentified agents in federal court on April 14, 2026, alleging Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations under the Maine Civil Rights Act — a state-law avenue his attorneys said could preserve accountability for constitutional claims that federal Bivens doctrine has narrowed. "Even though I followed all the rules, federal agents targeted me based on my race," Carvajal-Muñoz said. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

Updates

2026-07-21 — Amended complaint named the previously unidentified agents [4]

Carvajal-Muñoz's attorneys filed a first amended complaint naming four ICE agents previously listed as unidentified defendants — Daisy Angulo, James Peters, John Stalnik, and Javaka Thompson — alongside Ravencamp. The court extended defendants' deadline to respond to the amended complaint to September 25, 2026.