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DHS immigration agents arrested F.R.P. and his wife without a warrant in a Cheektowaga Walmart parking lot, complaint alleges

On January 24, 2026, DHS immigration officers stopped and arrested F.R.P., a 63-year-old Latino resident of Buffalo with a pending asylum application and employment authorization, along with his wife R.C.R., without a warrant in the parking lot of a Walmart in Cheektowaga, New York. F.R.P. was released on bond on February 18, 2026; R.C.R. was released on bond on February 19. The arrest is among eight incidents documented in a class action complaint filed April 8, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleging that DHS agencies ICE and CBP engage in a systematic policy of racial profiling and warrantless immigration arrests targeting Latino New Yorkers.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Cheektowaga, New York

Abuses documented

Actors

On January 24, 2026, DHS immigration officers stopped and arrested F.R.P. and his wife, R.C.R., without a warrant while they were in the parking lot of a Walmart in Cheektowaga, New York. F.R.P., a 63-year-old Latino resident of Buffalo with a pending asylum application and employment authorization, was taken into immigration detention alongside R.C.R., 55, who also held a pending asylum application. F.R.P. was released on bond on February 18, 2026; R.C.R. was released on bond the following day.

The arrest is documented in a class action complaint filed April 8, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The complaint, brought by the Legal Aid Society, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Make the Road New York, and Covington & Burling LLP on behalf of eight Latino New York plaintiffs, alleges that DHS — through component agencies ICE and CBP — maintains a policy and practice of making suspicionless stops and warrantless immigration arrests based solely on perceived race and ethnicity, in violation of the Fourth Amendment and federal regulations requiring reasonable suspicion before a stop and probable cause before a warrantless arrest. Federal immigration law also requires agents to have a reasonable belief that the person arrested is likely to escape before making a warrantless arrest. The complaint identifies no warrant or individualized suspicion as the basis for the arrest of F.R.P. and R.C.R.

The named defendants are DHS, ICE, and CBP. The lawsuit was filed as a class action seeking to halt the alleged policy of suspicionless stops and warrantless immigration arrests across New York state.

Updates

2026-04-08 — Class action complaint filed in EDNY naming F.R.P. and R.C.R. as plaintiffs [1]

On April 8, 2026, the Legal Aid Society, NYCLU, Make the Road New York, and Covington & Burling filed a class action complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, naming F.R.P. and R.C.R. as plaintiffs and documenting their January 24 arrest as part of an alleged DHS policy of racial profiling and warrantless immigration arrests targeting Latino New Yorkers.

Why we recorded this

The Fourth Amendment's probable-cause requirement applies to every person in the United States, including asylum seekers with pending applications. When DHS immigration officers stopped and arrested F.R.P. and his wife without a warrant in a Cheektowaga Walmart parking lot — on no apparent basis beyond their perceived race and ethnicity — they acted outside those constitutional limits. A class action complaint documents this arrest as part of a systematic DHS pattern of racial profiling: suspicionless stops and warrantless immigration arrests targeting Latino New Yorkers. Standing Record records individual enforcement events like this one because the erosion of Fourth Amendment rights in immigration enforcement is most visible in the specifics of each arrest — who was stopped, where, under what authority, and what the law actually required.

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 — NYCLU primary accessed July 23, 2026
  2. ICE Warrantless Arrest Case — NYCLU primary accessed July 23, 2026
  3. Two Buffalonians among eight filing class action lawsuit against DHS alleging racial profiling — Buffalo Toronto Public Media secondary accessed July 23, 2026

See also