7 Massachusetts car wash workers detained during immigration raid file federal complaint

Seven workers detained during a November immigration enforcement raid at an Allston car wash have filed a federal complaint against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alleging violations of their civil rights.

The incident, which was captured on video by a bystander, showed dozens of officers surrounding the business and detaining employees.

"Without warrants, without probable cause, without any individualized basis to make arrests, the ICE officers indiscriminately seized everyone within their reach," said attorney Brooke Simone of Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based nonprofit representing the workers.

Car wash workers detained

Nine employees were initially detained in the raid. Simone said the seven individuals who filed the complaint claim they experienced physical and emotional harm during and after their arrests.

"They have experienced a multitude of symptoms, both physical, psychological, mental and emotional," Simone said. "All of the workers suffered battery at the hands of the ICE officers."

One of the workers, 20-year-old Jose Pable Henriquez Sagastume, described the lasting impact of the incident in a statement.

"The trauma of that day continues to affect every aspect of my life," he said. "We were just doing our jobs when armed officers surrounded us and treated us like criminals."

Simone said at least two of the detained workers were legally in the United States and said that ICE used facial recognition technology to identify them. She said that ICE agents still made the arrests even though they knew they were here legally.

"They were able to seemingly identify their names, or at least one of them, and saw that they had legal status but they continued to arrest these workers," she said.

Burlington ICE facility conditions

After their detention, the workers were held at an ICE facility in Burlington. Simone described the conditions at the facility.

"They were made to sleep on the floor in a prison-like cell, they were given barely any food, not enough water, didn't have access to hygienic products or showers," Simone said.

The women were later transferred to a facility in Vermont, except for one who was sent to Texas, where she was held for 30 days before returning to Massachusetts.

The federal complaint marks the first step toward a potential lawsuit. Simone said the case reflects broader patterns seen in immigration enforcement actions across the country.

WBZ-TV reached out to ICE for a comment on the story, but so far the agency has not responded.