An elderly Los Angeles-area car wash owner is suing federal immigration authorities, claiming masked officers shoved him to the ground, piled on top of him, and detained him without charges or medical care for 12 hours during a September raid.
The $50 million lawsuit was filed by Rafie Ollah Shouhed, 79, owner of Valley Car Wash in Van Nuys. The suit names the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Civil rights attorney V. James DeSimone, representing Shouhed, said during a Thursday press conference, “The only thing that those ICE agents said to him, as three of them piled on top of him… They said, ‘You don’t f*** with ICE.’”
DeSimone added that surveillance footage shows “the callous, casual way” immigration officers operate across Los Angeles, often resorting to force immediately.
According to the lawsuit, masked agents raided the business on September 9. When Shouhed went to inquire about the operation, officers allegedly shoved him to the ground. Later, as he tried to vouch for the legal status of employees being arrested, he claims he was forced down again, this time under three agents while pleading that he needed an ambulance and could not breathe.
Shouhed was then reportedly taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, where he says he was denied medical attention before being released without charges.
The incident left Shouhed with broken ribs, an injured elbow, and post-concussive symptoms of a traumatic brain injury. “I have a heart condition. I’m an old man, begging them, ‘Let me go. I need to go to the hospital,’” he told NBC Los Angeles at the time.
He added, “I thought this was a nice country, a good country. Why do they do this kind of thing to you?”
The Department of Homeland Security described the operation to The Independent as a “targeted immigration enforcement operation” that resulted in the arrest of five undocumented immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico, including one who had been removed from the U.S. twice in 2015.
“The owner of Valley Car Wash, a U.S. citizen, impeded the operation and was arrested for assaulting and impeding a federal officer,” DHS stated.
Immigration raids across Los Angeles have sparked lawsuits, protests, and federal troop deployments. The Trump administration sent National Guard and U.S. Marine Corps personnel into the city over the summer amid protests against the raids.
The administration also faced a federal lawsuit accusing immigration agents of conducting “roving patrols” that allegedly targeted people based on perceived ethnicity, language, or legal status. Lower courts temporarily halted such tactics, citing potential illegal profiling, but the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed officials to continue after an emergency appeal by the Trump administration.
Last week, California signed a law banning most law enforcement, including federal agents, from wearing face masks. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said the masks are reminiscent of secret police in authoritarian regimes. The White House has stated that federal officials are not bound by this law and will continue wearing masks.
