ICE agents stopped and arrested A.M.C. as she was entering her apartment building in Brooklyn, New York

On February 24, 2026, ICE agents in Brooklyn, New York, stopped a woman identified in court filings as A.M.C. as she was entering her apartment building, arresting and detaining her without a judicial warrant for seven days. Her 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.

On February 24, 2026, ICE agents in Brooklyn, New York, stopped a woman identified in court filings as A.M.C. as she was entering her apartment building. The agents arrested and detained her without a judicial warrant. A.M.C. was held for seven days before being released.

Her 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.

ICE agents stopped a woman identified as A.M.C. as she was entering her apartment building, with no documented criminal suspicion, before arresting and detaining her for seven days without a judicial warrant. A person entering their own home is afforded the strongest Fourth Amendment protections; a warrantless arrest in that context without exigent circumstances is presumptively unlawful. This entry records a documented warrantless stop and detention of a civilian by federal immigration agents at the threshold of her residence.

  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 YorkersLegal Aid Society / NYCLU primary accessed July 26, 2026
  2. New Lawsuit Accuses ICE of Racially Profiling New Yorkers During Immigration ArrestsThe City investigative accessed July 26, 2026