On September 20, 2007, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a lawsuit against the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on behalf of several families who claimed that ICE agents violently raided their homes without first obtaining court warrants. The suit alleged that the raids, which were part of a program called Operation Return to Sender, violated constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and singled out Hispanics. Relatedly, in July 2009 the Immigration Justice Clinic at the Cardozo School of Law released a report [PDF] that immigration agents have committed numerous constitutional violations during home raids.

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