A San Bernardino grandmother and U.S. citizen of 20 years filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday alleging she was jailed and placed on an ICE hold, without probable cause, after trying to retrieve personal belongings from the Ontario Police Department.

The ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the Los Angeles law firm Sidley Austin LLP filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Riverside on behalf of Guadalupe Plascencia, 60, a hair stylist and San Bernardino resident of 38 years.

Plascencia, according to the lawsuit, arrived at the Ontario Police Department with her daughter about 4 p.m. March 29 to collect her gun, which was retrieved from her car after it was involved in a traffic accident.

“Instead of walking out with her things, however, Ms. Plascencia found herself under arrest,” the lawsuit states. “To her shock and dismay, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department took her into custody and handed her over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that arrested, handcuffed, and detained her – even though Ms. Plascencia repeatedly told both county and federal officers that she is an American citizen and offered to provide documents showing this to be true.”

Plascencia, a mother of five children, had a permit to carry the firearm and was arrested on a 10-year-old warrant for not appearing in court to testify as a witness in a case, a legal matter that has since been resolved, said attorney Eva Bitran, of the ACLU’s San Bernardino office, in a telephone interview Tuesday.

The lawsuit notes that the electronic databases ICE uses to identify “enforcement targets” and “discern citizenship and immigration status” do not contain naturalization records prior to 1994, and only “spotty information” is available prior to 2008.

“Plascencia’s case shows why collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement is especially dangerous: San Bernardino Sheriff’s deputies should know better than to trust ICE, as the agency relies on outdated and error-ridden databases to justify its arrests,” Bitran said in a statement Tuesday. “Especially in light of Plascencia’s constant assertions that she is a U.S. citizen, neither the county nor ICE had probable cause to detain her. This collaboration resulted in violations of a U.S. citizen’s constitutional rights.”

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Sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said in an email Tuesday that the Sheriff’s Department does not comment on pending litigation, but did provide information on its policies and procedures on immigration enforcement. While the department no longer participates in immigration enforcement and does not notify ICE of anyone’s immigration status when they are in custody, the department does provide information to state and federal law enforcement agencies upon request.

In Plascencia’s case, ICE sent the Sheriff’s Department an immigration detainer requesting it detain Plascencia “up to 48 hours past her release,” Bachman said. She said Plascencia was provided a consent form to be interviewed by ICE, which she signed. The form was provided to Plascencia under California’s new law – Transparency Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds – or, the TRUTH Act, Bachman said.

The TRUTH Act took effect on Jan. 1, 2017.

The Sheriff’s Department cite-released Plascencia from custody and gave her a notice to appear in court to resolve her arrest warrant. Upon her release, an ICE agent detained Plascencia and took her to the agency’s San Bernardino office to be interviewed, Bachman said.

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Opinion: Christians must fight Trump attempt to monopolize faith Plascencia’s attorneys maintain that ICE agents mocked her while she was in their custody, accused her of identity theft, threatened to deport her and refused to allow her to make a phone call. An ICE agent finally called Plascencia’s daughter, who later arrived at the office with her mother’s passport proving her citizenship.

“Ms. Plascencia’s ordeal was entirely preventable if officers had taken a moment to properly investigate her citizenship and listen to her repeated pleas that she was a lawful U.S. citizen,” said James M. Perez, one of Plascencia’s attorneys, in a statement Tuesday. “Rather, Ms. Plascencia, a mother of five, a grandmother of 16, and a business owner, was made to feel that she did not belong in her own country. This lawsuit seeks to protect Ms. Plascencia’s right to live in this country without fear of being unlawfully detained.”

ICE spokesman James Schwab declined to comment Tuesday, saying the agency does not comment on pending litigation.