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ICE agents stopped and arrested Rene Antonio Benitez while he was driving his daughter to school in Brentwood, New York

On February 26, 2026, ICE agents in Brentwood, New York, stopped Rene Antonio Benitez while he was driving his daughter to school, demanding to know where he was going before arresting and detaining him without a judicial warrant. Benitez was released the same day after his attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition. 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
Brentwood, New York

Abuses documented

Actors

On February 26, 2026, ICE agents in Brentwood, New York, stopped Rene Antonio Benitez while he was driving his daughter to school. The agents demanded to know where he was going before placing him under arrest. Benitez was detained without a judicial warrant. His attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition the same day and he was released before the end of the day.

Benitez's arrest is one of eight documented stops and arrests 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 Rene Antonio Benitez while he was driving his daughter to school, demanding to know where he was going. The stop preceded his arrest and detention that day without judicial warrant. Courts have held that stops based on apparent race or ethnicity violate the Fourth Amendment's equal protection requirement. This entry records a documented warrantless stop and arrest of a civilian by federal immigration agents based on no articulable criminal suspicion.

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