Aliya Rahman, the Minneapolis resident whose viral video showed federal immigration agents dragging her from her car, has filed a new federal complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. The 17-page filing al
For weeks, Aliya Rahman has been living with what she says happened on Jan. 13—federal immigration enforcement officers dragging her out of her car as she headed to a doctor’s appointment, then leaving her unconscious on the floor of a cell at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building.
On Tuesday, Rahman returned to that moment with a new legal filing. The Minneapolis resident. a Bangladeshi American software engineer who is autistic and has physical disabilities. filed a federal complaint alleging the officers violated disability and human rights laws. Her attorneys submitted the 17-page complaint to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. asking the office to open an investigation into her violent assault and arrest—and what she describes as inhumane treatment afterward.
Rahman’s case is built around details her lawyers say were ignored. “Officers ignored her repeated requests for disability accommodations and deteriorating health until she was unconscious on the floor of her cell at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building. ” the complaint states. It also alleges that Rahman was never charged with a crime. and that she is living with lasting injuries and trauma from the encounter.
The complaint does not rely on one legal theory. It alleges violations of Rahman’s First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights, and it cites Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, along with international human rights laws.
One of Rahman’s attorneys, Chisato Kimura, framed the filing as an attempt to force accountability from the department itself. “The brutal treatment Ms. Rahman received at the hands of her own government was not an aberration but part of a troubling pattern by DHS and its officers of unlawful and inhumane conduct. ” Kimura said in a statement. “To date there has been little to no accountability for federal officers who have violated the rights of civilians across the country.”.
In an interview Tuesday, Rahman acknowledged how difficult it may be to imagine DHS taking the complaint seriously. She said. “we’re watching them unconstitutionally violate everybody’s rights. ” and described her own decision to keep going as a refusal to surrender. Her message to the public was blunt: the erosion of rights can accelerate when people stop insisting on them.
The broader backdrop matters to her lawyers and to the way Rahman is positioning her case. The Jan. 13 arrest happened at the peak of the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge. when thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers flooded Minnesota to detain people in search of brown and Black people regardless of their citizenship status. Rahman’s lawyers say that monthslong operation traumatized immigrant communities. injected violence into peaceful community protests. and contributed to other deadly encounters—federal agents fatally shooting two U.S. citizens in broad daylight, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Rahman’s complaint also lands in a political and institutional context she says makes accountability harder to achieve. Her attorneys point to the Trump administration’s decision to gut DHS’s civil rights office, slashing its staff by 85%. Rahman told HuffPost she still sees the office as a potential avenue for justice. even if it has been weakened—because filing is part of making the system respond.
“I’m not willing to stop doing my job just because they’ve stopped doing theirs. and it’s important to me to sometimes plant trees that I might not ever sit under. ” Rahman said. “I think one way that our rights get eroded is when we give up on having them. To me, what this document says is, ‘Federal government, is this what you think the law says?’”.
This is not her first attempt to seek legal relief. Rahman has now filed two federal complaints against DHS officers. In April, she filed a Federal Tort Claims Act claim alleging unlawful use of force and detention by federal agents. That action functioned as an administrative complaint and. according to her. was the first step necessary for bringing a formal lawsuit against the federal government.
Rahman says she hopes the new complaint opens the door for others who may not know they have options after what they believe is abuse by federal law enforcement. She has also helped set up the Civil Rights Litigation Loan Fund to help Minnesotans cover legal expenses tied to filing a complaint or lawsuit in this vein.
“I see this as a letter to a future country that says. ‘I have done some work enumerating for you the specific things that you need to change. ’” Rahman said of her legal steps. “I have done some work listing out. in very concrete ways. a little checklist for stuff you need to take care of to make sure you’re no longer in breach of international human rights law.”.
Aliya Rahman DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties ICE assault Minneapolis Operation Metro Surge disability rights Rehabilitation Act of 1973 First Fourth Fifth Amendment Federal Tort Claims Act Civil Rights Litigation Loan Fund Renee Good Alex Pretti autism
This is insane. How is she not charged with anything?
I saw that video and I still don’t get how they can just… drag someone like that. If she’s autistic and has disabilities, they should’ve accommodated her instead of acting like nothing happened.
So wait, is DHS gonna fire the agents or is this just paperwork that goes nowhere? Also I thought ICE only deals with deportations not assaults like this, but maybe I’m mixing it up with something else.
Minneapolis always gets targeted news wise, but this one sounds way bigger than politics. The First/4th/5th amendment stuff is crazy, like how do you ignore disability accommodations until she’s unconscious? I hope they actually investigate and not just say ‘we take concerns seriously’ and move on.