The Jersey Journal reports:
Maria Argueta, who has maintained valid Temporary Protection Status since 2001, was awakened Jan. 29 around 4:30 a.m. by ICE agents banging loudly on the doors and windows of her ground-floor North Bergen apartment, the lawsuit claims.
"She was really afraid and didn't want to let anyone in," said Bassina Farbenblum of the Seton Hall Center for Social Justice, which filed the lawsuit.
Argueta's basement neighbors opened the door for the agents, and called their landlord, who is Argueta's brother, the lawsuit claims. The agents were looking for a male criminal, so Argueta let them inside her apartment.
Once inside, the agents asked Argueta about her immigration status, and when Argueta presented her Temporary Protection Status documents, they tossed them aside without looking at them, the suit alleges.
According to the lawsuit, Argueta was taken to a detention center in Elizabeth, where agents mocked her with a popular Latino song "Maria Has Gone," and was later transferred to a Newark facility, where she was held for nearly 36 hours. Argueta was held without food or water for the first 24 hours after her arrest, the lawsuit claims.
Harold Ort, a spokesman for ICE's Newark office, said he could not comment on pending litigation, but said ICE agents are "very, very professional."
"Contrary to what you may hear and contrary to what you may read, our officers are extremely good at what they do," Ort said. "We are charged with upholding the law, and I think we do that in a stellar fashion."
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