Rafael Carranza | The Republic | azcentral.com

TUCSON — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Tucson on behalf of three migrant activists, all U.S. citizens, who accuse President Donald Trump's administration of surveilling and harassing them because they work with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and California.

Two of the activists, Alex Mensing and Jeff Valenzuela, are members of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an advocacy group that helped organize several migrant caravans through Mexico, on their way to the U.S. border to claim asylum. The caravans drew Trump's ire, especially as the largest one reached Tijuana in November 2018.

The third plaintiff is Ana Adlerstein, a reporter and humanitarian aid volunteer based in Ajo, a small community in southwestern Arizona about 40 miles north of the border. Her recent work has focused mainly on covering "the challenges asylum seekers and humanitarian actors face in Southern Arizona," according to the complaint.

The lawsuit alleges that the federal government — specifically, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI — "unlawfully surveils and seizes United States citizen activists at the border."

They accuse the government of violating the three activists’ First Amendment rights to free speech and free association, Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful seizures, and the violation of the Privacy Act by collecting information and records about them.

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The ACLU lists in the complaint several media reports of leaked government memos as proof that the Trump administration had been monitoring the work of migrant advocacy groups along the border, including the creation of a "secret database" ICE compiled of advocates, attorneys and reporters in connection with the 10,000-member caravan that arrived at Tijuana in November.

Reports of the leaked database prompted them to file the lawsuit, Valenzuela told The Arizona Republic.

“It was easy to assume that there was some sort of effort, that we were being targeted,” he said. “Because of the way it happened, it was really obvious that I was being flagged, and this happened every single time, in a single period of time, with all of my crossings.”

In an eight-point conclusion, the lawsuit seeks an injunction from the federal judge, ordering the U.S. government to "cease their suspicionless detentions, arrests, interrogations, and physical restraints of Plaintiffs at the border," and to expunge all records and information they gathered on the activists.

“My hope is that the judicial system sees things the way we do and does what it can to determine that these are violations of constitutional rights,” Mensing added. “But I do think ultimately, it’s up to us. It’s up to people to stand up to this kind of abusive practice.”

The Republic has reached out to CBP, ICE and the FBI for comment. All three agencies declined to comment because the lawsuit is pending.

Reporter claims wrongful arrest

Nick Oza, The Republic | azcentral.com

The 39-page court filing details the surveillance and harassment allegations the three migrant activists filed against the federal agencies listed in the lawsuit.

Adlerstein, the reporter and volunteer based in Ajo, accused Customs and Border Protection officers of unlawfully arresting her for accompanying asylum seekers to the Lukeville port of entry, located about 150 miles southwest of Phoenix.

She had been accompanying migrants at the Mexican border city of Sonoyta to the port of entry for about seven months to ensure that customs officers did not turn them away under the metering policy, which limits the number of migrants officers process for asylum each day.

On the afternoon of May 5, Adlerstein walked with a Honduran woman to the port but said she had no intention of crossing into the U.S. with her. A customs officer told them to return a few hours later because they were processing another family.

The women returned two hours later. Customs officers took in the Hondruan woman, but they also arrested Adlerstein, repeatedly calling her an “illegal alien smuggler,” according to the lawsuit.

Officers patted her down and placed her in a cell for more than four hours, allegedly denying her right to make a phone call and without evidence of wrongdoing. They only released her after she provided her contact information “against her will,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit said she returned three times following her arrest. And on the two occasions she drove her own car, she was referred to secondary inspection.

“Because of her May 5 arrest, Ms. Adlerstein stopped legally accompanying individuals at Lukeville, and dramatically cut her lawful volunteer work in Sonoyta, as she is scared to continue her work on behalf of asylum seekers,” the court document reads. “Ms. Adlerstein fears that Defendants will continue to subject her to unlawful detention and arrest at the border, particularly if she were to accompany migrants.”

‘Shackled his ankles with handcuffs'

The other two men filing the lawsuit, Mensing and Valenzuela, are U.S. citizens who live in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego. They are described as “long-time humanitarian activists and volunteers Pueblo Sin Fronteras.”

According to the lawsuit, the federal government collected intrusive information about both as part of their work with that group as part of “secret database.”

As a result, they allege that they were subjected to unreasonable searches and prolonged detention anytime they attempted to cross the border in California.

Valenzuela alleges that customs officers at several ports of entry in San Diego referred him to secondary inspections on multiple occasions. The first time was in Dec. 26 last year, when customs and ICE officers detained him for more than two hours and interrogated him about the caravan and the shelters for them in Tijuana. The officers would not release him until he allowed them to go through his phone.

Two days later, Valenzuela was again referred to a secondary inspection. This time, customs officers ordered him to get out, place his hands in the back and handcuffed him. They said it was “standard procedure,” and took him into a long room.

“Officers then sat Mr. Valenzuela on a bench in the room and shackled his ankles with handcuffs to the bench’s steel legs,” the lawsuit alleges. “They held Mr. Valenzuela chained to the bench for four hours. They did not permit him to move from the bench except on two brief occasions, when they agreed to allow him use of a nearby restroom.”

After an interrogation, with many of the same questions as the one two days earlier, he was released. On at least four subsequent occasions that Valenzuela crossed the border, he was referred to secondary inspection and questioned each time, the lawsuit says.

As a result, according to the lawsuit, “Mr. Valenzuela dramatically cut his humanitarian activity. He did this because he fears that further significant work, including with border organizations, would subject him to repeated, additional scrutiny and arrest at the border, including shackling, arrest, and interrogation.”

Valenzuela said he even stopped crossing the border to visit his family in Los Angeles. The day he was shackled, Dec. 28, he was on his way to celebrate the holidays with them, but ended up not going, he said.

“There was the fear of being detained, and returning to the U.S., and then there was another fear that I wouldn’t be allowed back in,” he said. ... It really stopped me from being active and doing that work.”

More harassment detailed in lawsuit

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Tijuana, Mexico's migrant shelters have become overcrowded

The lawsuit calls Mensing one of the longest-serving volunteers with Pueblo Sin Fronteras. He’s been with the group since 2014, long before the migrant caravans catapulted them into headlines around the world.

The filing states that Mensing, who lives in Tijuana, crosses the border into the U.S. repeatedly. In the span of 17 months, and as recently as Oct. 15, customs officers referred Mensing to secondary inspections while crossing on 26 of the 28 times he crossed the border.

Each time, he was interrogated, it usually was about the same thing: his work as a migrant activist in Tijuana, according to the lawsuit. On one occasion, officers said they would search him for drugs.

Officers also searched his personal belongings, which Mensing agreed to “only because he believed he had to respond in order to be released,” the lawsuit says. Mensing accuses CBP of photocopying documents he had in his possession at the time of his detention.

“In light of public revelations that he and his fellow PSF (Pueblo Sin Fronteras) volunteers are under surveillance, and fearing that he will be singled out for future intrusive seizures, Mr. Mensing stopped travelling to the United States during that period to visit his friends and family,” according to the lawsuit.

Since then, he has crossed the border 10 additional times, and on each occasion, officers referred him to secondary inspections or interrogations, including searches of his personal belongings.

Activists blame the U.S. for harassment

Nick Oza, The Republic | azcentral.com

Irineo Mujica, longtime Pueblo Sin Fronteras’ leader and Phoenix resident, has also attracted the attention of the federal government.

U.S. prosecutors in Tucson federal court named him as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against humanitarian aid volunteer Scott Warren, who faces a second trial on charges of harboring two undocumented immigrants in Ajo in February 2018. His first trial in June ended in a hung jury.

Prosecutors accused Mujica of coordinating with Warren to facilitate the smuggling of those two migrants across the Arizona desert on their way to Phoenix. He hasn’t been formally charged.

During the trial, border agents said they encountered Mujica days after Warren’s arrest in 2018, but they didn’t question him or arrest him regarding that case.

Mujica has accused the Mexican government of drumming up false charges against him, under pressure from the U.S. government. Officers in June arrested him in Sonoyta.

Earlier these year, two judges in Mexico threw out smuggling charges connected to his work with Pueblo Sin Fronteras.

Mensing said that, through his work, he’s heard of similar situations happening to migrant advocates and activists in Mexico and Central American countries. Mensing said that can be traced back to the U.S. government.

“There’s many, many people who this is happening to, and it’s not just happening in the United States. It’s not just happening to U.S. citizens,” he said. “”But I think the U.S. has a lot to do about why they are getting detained and interrogated and harassed.”

Have any news tips or story ideas about the U.S.-Mexico border? Reach the reporter at rafael.carranza@arizonarepublic.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RafaelCarranza.