Despite identifying herself as a legal observer, she said, agents \u2014 or possibly National Guard \u2014 deployed tear gas and shot her six times with rubber bullets. She ran and then, unable to see, crawled on all fours to escape. <\/p>\n
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Vanessa Valdez, a Ventura-based attorney, has filed a claim against the federal government, alleging she was hit with tear gas and six rubber bullets during the Glass House Farms raid last July.<\/p>\n
(Christina House \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were just shooting aimlessly, it seemed like,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought maybe they had fractured a rib because that\u2019s how painful it was. I couldn\u2019t sleep face down for three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramirez and Valdez are among the dozens of U.S. citizens and immigrants who are seeking financial compensation for damages they say they suffered during President Trump\u2019s immigration dragnet. For Valdez, that includes the cost of hospital visits, lost wages as she recovered, anxiety medication and seeing a therapist. <\/p>\n
After reviewing public accounts and legal documents and interviews with more than a dozen lawyers and immigrants, The Times found that claimants from across the country are seeking at least $260 million. <\/p>\n
In a statement, Homeland Security spokesperson Lauren Bis wrote that ICE officers are held to the highest professional standard and receive regular training. Bis said that when agents are faced with danger, they use their training to protect themselves and the public. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe pattern is NOT of law enforcement using force. It\u2019s a pattern of violent agitators attacking our law enforcement,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n
Asked about Valdez, Bis said law enforcement deployed chemical irritants including pepper balls, but not rubber bullets, after agitators attempted to breach the perimeter at Glass House Farms. She said Ramirez refused officer\u2019s commands and physically attacked them, so they pepper-sprayed him in self-defense.<\/p>\n
Lawyers who are experts in tort claims said the bureaucratic process is lengthy and complex, and any damage award would likely be lower than what a claimant is seeking.<\/p>\n
Still, seeking redress through the Federal Tort Claims Act is one of the few legal remedies available for those seeking financial compensation for deaths, physical injuries, emotional trauma, unlawful detention or property damage caused by federal employees.<\/p>\n
The number of claims is expected to rise. <\/p>\n
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Federal agents, some wearing street clothes and some wearing uniforms and protective gear, form a defensive line against hundreds of protesters outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles on Jan. 30.<\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
In recent months, advocacy organizations have prepared practice advisories<\/a> for attorneys interested in filing tort claims, and law groups across the country have begun holding training sessions<\/a> on the process.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no question in my mind that a lot of people \u2014 hundreds, thousands \u2014 have been harmed significantly and will be legally entitled to large damages payouts, which are going to come from the federal government,\u201d said Jonathan Feinberg, a Philadelphia-based attorney.<\/p>\n Feinberg, who specializes in cases involving excessive use of force by police and abuses of detained immigrants, is president of the board of directors for the National Police Accountability Project, which focuses on law enforcement misconduct.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to be talking about Minneapolis in 2030,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Before they can sue in federal court, individuals must first request a review by the agency that they say is responsible, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection. The agency has six months to respond and deny the claim or offer a settlement.<\/p>\n If the agency doesn\u2019t respond or denies a claim, the claimant can then file suit. <\/p>\n Unlike civil rights lawsuits, in which juries decide the verdict, in tort cases, judges make that call. Only the agencies are named as defendants, not individuals.<\/p>\n The Times reviewed the claims of nearly 80 people filed since the start of 2025. The vast majority remain in the review stage. Lawyers anticipate most will not be settled, unleashing a flood of lawsuits starting this summer.<\/p>\n Federal law since 1871 has established that people can sue state and local officials for violating their constitutional rights. But the law left out federal actors.<\/p>\n One hundred years later, the Supreme Court allowed for damages lawsuits<\/a> against federal officials who violate a person\u2019s civil rights, though decisions in recent years have substantially narrowed that ability.<\/p>\n Democrats in California<\/a> are pursuing legislation that would make it easier for residents to seek financial damages for constitutional violations committed by federal agents. Similar laws were already enacted in Maryland<\/a>, Illinois<\/a> and Connecticut<\/a>, though the Trump administration has sued to block the latter two.<\/p>\n But there is a different route \u2014 tort claims.<\/p>\n Tort cases can be difficult to win, in part because the government can claim a \u201cdiscretionary function exception,\u201d which shields the agency from liability when the situation involves a policy-driven judgment call.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s what a lot of plaintiff\u2019s lawyers are really anxious about, that the Trump administration is going to say, \u2018Well, we\u2019ve got our own immigration policies. Of course a lot of people disagree with them, but the statute is designed to give us the right to make those policy judgments,\u2019\u201d said Benjamin Zipursky, a Fordham University law professor who studies torts.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, if I were the plaintiff\u2019s lawyer, I would say, \u2018Yeah, but shooting somebody in cold blood because you\u2019re just mad about their political views, and they\u2019re not really threatening your life at all \u2014 that\u2019s not a policy judgment,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The law office of John Burris, an Oakland-based attorney who represented Rodney King after he was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in 1991, has taken on damages clients in Minnesota. He said he anticipates filing around 80 tort claims<\/a> stemming from the immigration enforcement actions there. <\/p>\n A memorial for Renee Good at the location where she was fatally shot in Minneapolis. <\/p>\n (Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Burris said the experience has given him flashbacks to the period before King\u2019s beating and the subsequent protests over police brutality, when officers felt they could act with impunity.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s 1779799050 a more fundamental understanding that bad stuff does happen,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryday people are not as willing as they once were to just accept a police officer\u2019s perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n Public disapproval over immigration enforcement rose after federal immigration agents in Minneapolis shot and killed two 37-year-old U.S. citizens, Renee Good, a mother of three, and Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, in separate incidents.<\/p>\n Other deaths took place before the Minnesota operation: 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez<\/a>, who was killed by an ICE agent in Texas who fired repeatedly through the open window of his car; Keith Porter<\/a>, 43, who was killed in Los Angeles by an off-duty ICE agent after shooting his gun into the air on New Year\u2019s Eve; and Jaime Alanis Garcia, 57, who fell 30 feet from atop a greenhouse while fleeing agents at the Glass House Farms site in Camarillo.<\/p>\n Lawyers for the families of Good, Martinez and Garcia confirmed they are pursuing tort claims. Lawyers for the other families did not respond to requests for comment. <\/p>\n Additional highly publicized cases have also resulted in tort claims: Marimar Martinez<\/a>, who was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago; Mahmoud Khalil<\/a>, the Columbia University student and Palestinian rights activist who spent 104 days detained after the administration labeled him a national security threat; Aliya Rahman<\/a>, a disabled woman on her way to a doctor\u2019s appointment in Minneapolis who blacked out at a detention facility after ICE agents detained her.<\/p>\n New claims appear to be filed weekly. Seventeen men, women and children who were detained in a military-style raid<\/a> at a Chicago apartment complex filed claims this month seeking about $5 million each.<\/p>\n In many of the cases, Bis said, the claimants impeded or assaulted agents. Pretti\u2019s death remains under investigation, she said. <\/p>\n Willy Wender Aceituno stands in the parking lot where he was arrested last November by ICE agents in Charlotte, N.C.<\/p>\n (Jesse Barber \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n Willy Wender Aceituno was already a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of North Carolina challenging the policy allowing warrantless immigration arrests after he was stopped twice in a span of minutes by immigration agents last November. In March, he also submitted a tort claim<\/a>. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779799052_974_.jpeg\")
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