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Workers detained by ICE at Allston Car Wash allege civil rights violations in new complaint

"We were just doing our jobs when armed officers surrounded us and treated us like criminals," one worker said.

Allston Car Wash. Lane Turner/Boston Globe

April 22, 2026 | 12:01 PM

4 minutes to read

Seven workers who were detained when ICE agents raided a car wash in Allston last year filed a complaint Wednesday alleging the government subjected them to “intense physical, emotional, and psychological harm.”

The complaint, filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, requests $1 million in damages for each claimant. It is a required precursor to a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court.

“The trauma of that day continues to affect every aspect of my life,” José Pablo Henriquez Sagastume, a 20-year-old Allston Car Wash worker who was detained that day, said in a statement. “We were just doing our jobs when armed officers surrounded us and treated us like criminals. No one cared who we were. No one asked anything before grabbing me.”

The complaint was filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based nonprofit, and attorneys from the firm Zimmer, Citron & Clarke.

Spokespeople for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The car wash raid occurred last November, as the Trump administration ramped up highly visible enforcement operations associated with its mass deportation agenda. The raid caused immediate public outrage in Boston and elsewhere.

A Boston University student claimed on social media that the raid was the result of his requests to ICE. A conservative law firm later alleged that BU failed to protect the student from harassment and threats.

Those detained later described inhumane conditions they were allegedly subjected to after their arrests.

The FTCA complaint filed Wednesday details how the arrests occurred on the morning of Nov. 4. Just after 10 a.m., ICE agents in about 20 vehicles surrounded the business on Cambridge Street in a “massive show of force.” Most of the agents wore masks and tactical gear. They “immediately” began arresting car wash employees working outside, according to the complaint.

Of all the ICE agents on site, only one identified himself to the car wash’s general manager and co-owners. He presented an I-9 subpoena, which compels employers to produce records for their employees. The ICE agent who identified himself told the car wash’s leadership that “no one would be taken into custody unless they attempted to flee or acted ‘funny,’” according to the complaint. This promise was made even as agents were arresting workers who were “peaceful and compliant.”

One worker said that an ICE agent snapped a photo of him during his arrest without explanation. The agent then told his colleagues that he had found the worker in a database, ostensibly using facial recognition, and that the worker had legal status. Despite this acknowledgment, the worker was still detained, according to the complaint. Other workers described similar experiences.

“It was awful,” Felicita Del Carmen Escobar de Vasquez, one of the workers, said in a statement. “At the car wash, I couldn’t stop crying. The handcuffs were too tight, and they left bruises on my wrists for eight days.”

The ICE agents left the car wash with their detainees some 20 minutes later. In a nearby Target parking lot, the detainees were chained by their hands, feet, and waists. They were loaded onto a bus and transported to the ICE field office in Burlington. Agents did not put seatbelts on the detainees, who said they were thrown around the bus as the driver hit the brakes hard, according to the complaint.

The detainees were processed in Burlington and given two options: agree to voluntary deportation or appear before a judge. The ICE agents emphasized that those that chose the latter would face a long detention during the process. Some detainees chose to sign self-deportation paperwork while in a fearful and panicked state, according to the complaint.

The ICE field office in Burlington, located on District Avenue near the Burlington Mall, is not a detention center and is only intended to hold detainees for short periods of time before they are transported elsewhere. But as federal officials implemented arrest quotas for ICE agents last year, detainees and their lawyers began voicing concerns that the Burlington office was becoming a dangerously overcrowded bottleneck in the system.

The complaint describes the conditions in Burlington last November as “horrific.” Detainees were held in rooms reminiscent of prison cells, with no privacy. They were given only aluminum blankets and slept on the floor. The food was “meager and inadequate,” and they were not given an adequate amount of water, according to the complaint.

The two men named in the complaint were transported to Plymouth County Correctional Facility the next day, where they faced similarly unpleasant conditions. One woman was transferred to a facility in New Hampshire and then to Texas. Four others were transferred to a facility in Burlington, Vermont. All seven of the claimants named in the complaint were eventually released on bond in late November and early December.

Those detained allege that ICE violated their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, along with a number of other laws. They were racially profiled and arrested without probable cause, according to the complaint.

“This was not targeted enforcement. It was a racialized sweep,” Brooke Simone, a staff attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights, said in a statement. “Federal agents stormed a workplace, surrounded employees, and arrested them without warrants, without probable cause, and without asking a single question. Our clients were targeted simply because of the color of their skin, the language they speak, and the place they work.”

The full complaint can be read here.