For more than three decades, Guadalupe R. Plascencia has been putting down roots in California as a naturalized American. She raised five children, worked in a beauty salon, and welcomed a new generation as her sons and daughters had families of their own.

But last year, according to court documents, Ms. Plascencia was handcuffed, briefly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in San Bernardino County and threatened with deportation.

“Here, you are nobody,” an ICE officer told her, according to the documents. “You are nothing.”

In December 2017, Ms. Plascencia, 60, sued the United States government and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for false arrest and imprisonment, and in September she was awarded $55,000 in a settlement, according to court documents filed in United States District Court in San Bernardino County last week.

The county agreed to pay $35,000 and the federal government agreed to pay $20,000, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Ms. Plascencia in a lawsuit claiming that the detention violated her constitutional rights against unlawful seizure.