Aliya Rahman speaks about ICE arrest lawsuit

This morning, 301 days after Alia Rahman was assaulted and abducted by immigration enforcement officers on her way to a routine doctor's appointment, MacArthur Justice Center and Friedman Gilbert and Garrett Stein filed a Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit, FTCA, in the United States District Court of the District of Minnesota. We are filing this lawsuit to demand accountability for the officer's lawless actions that have led to Alia's immense physical, Physical, emotional, and mental suffering. We also bring this lawsuit to stand in solidarity with the hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals who have been subjected to the administration's campaign of violence. We stand here today with movement leaders from COPAL and the Minnesota Freedom Fund. These organizations and the larger community in Minnesota, in South Minneapolis, where we are right now, have led the way in demanding justice. We stand together because we recognize that while this lawsuit and the many lawsuits that are coming and have already been filed are important, but lawsuits without movements cannot change the tide. We are here as a movement, a movement that will not allow what happened to Alia, what happened to Minnesota, what happened to Chicago, what is still happening across this country. That will not allow this campaign of violence and inhumanity to continue. Together, we say no more. Now, as an FTCA action, this action is against the United States government, not a single officer. In fact, we still don't know today the names of the officers involved in Alia's assault and detention. And while individual accountability is important, it would be nice. What happened to Alia is not a result of just a couple of rogue officers. It is the result of a lawless and negligent government encouraging and egging on officers who were recklessly and systemically violating the rights of individuals. In this case, our claims deriving from the Minnesota tort law are the following. Assault, battery, false assault, false arrest and imprisonment, trespass to chattel, intentional infliction of emotional distress. Negligence, willful and wanton negligence, and negligent supervision. I want to note, this lawsuit wasn't inevitable. DHS and ICE's actions and inaction are what have led us to this moment. On January 13, 2026, when Alia Rahman's car window was smashed, and the image of her being carried by her arms and legs as she yelled out that she was disabled went viral, DHS and ICE could have apologized. Instead, that night as Alia was heading home from the hospital, DHS posted on their X account, quote, to all ICE officers, you have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. On April 16th, 2020, we filed our administrative complaint with the agencies. We laid out what happened to Alia. We asked them to investigate what happened. We asked them for a monetary remedy, which is the only remedy you can ask for in an FTCA lawsuit. Nearly seven months later, we have heard nothing. The federal government has chosen to hide rather than send a single word in response or change their practices. This is not the behavior of people who are serious about building a just country and delivering public safety. We followed their process. They didn't respond. And so here we are today, taking them to court. And now it is my pleasure to turn it over to our co-counsel on this case, Al Gerhardstein, counsel of Friedman, Gilbert, and Gerhardstein. Thank you, Jessica. Good morning. My name is Al Gerhardstein, and I'm the local counsel from Minnesota here representing ALIA. I've sued law enforcement officers for many decades. The Constitution and DHS policies were all blatantly violated in this case. Alia was arrested without probable cause when she was just going to her doctor, minding her own business. She was the victim of excessive force when she was showered with glass, thrown to the ground, and carried through the streets. She was denied accommodations for her disabilities. And she was denied medical care for her serious medical needs, causing her to lose consciousness at Whipple. Her treatment by federal agents was outrageous and illegal. This will all be very clearly established in the lawsuit that we're filing today. And as Jessica mentioned, many others will be filing lawsuits as well. The verdicts in these cases will help Congress see how to amend the laws to make government more accountable. Others will speak, and I welcome your questions later. Thank you. My name is Alia Rahman, and I live right here in South Minneapolis. Thank you for listening to us today. In the 10 months since I was removed unconscious from ICE custody, it has become common for strangers to talk to me about how violence from law enforcement and incarceration impacts them. I am the kind of autistic person whose brain fixates on patterns, so when people offer these pieces of stories, I try to stitch together the edges that match. For me, they form a banner that displays a single question, How can we make a good home for our people? When I see ice out signs, I wonder what they mean now about whose home we are making. I desperately hope that beyond pushing Greg Bovino out of town, we will complete the whole movement and fight the things that gave rise to Metro Surge in the first place, like qualified immunity for police. Not necessarily separating low-income families to enrich the cash bail industry, leaving legal slavery still written into Minnesota's Constitution. Those are the body parts ICE is made of, and removing them is what would feel like accountability, healing, and justice to me. Thankfully, we already have leaders working on those bills, and we have always had people right here. who have done everyday work for generations to care for and lead our people through darkness towards systems that actually deliver safety. When people at the grocery store expressed disbelief that this happened to me in America, I think of people I love deeply for whom this has happened in every generation of their family in America. Our country has a long history of violence in which the state is the aggressor. Toward indigenous people, toward black people, toward people called deviant or thugs by others looking to steal power. America remains a place of violent duality, where some are hunted by the very thing their neighbors think keeps them safe. But I feel that if some are using my case as a lens to now see this problem more clearly, it is not my place to cover that lens, but to widen the aperture. That is the reason for this press conference format. What happened to me is not just about ICE, and lawsuits are only one tool for fixing what is really going on. So we have invited Minnesota experts to tell us about some of the other tools that are in play right now, and about who else is impacted by these issues, but might not have had the privilege of a story told on camera. Headlines have spotlighted the horrors of this happening to me because I am a U.S. citizen and was never charged with the crime, but I want to be very clear that I am not actually entitled to more humane or lawful treatment than anyone else. No amount of assault or making me even more disabled than I already was is going to change how I feel about that or forget the many people I love who have survived America's prisons. Should someone really face state-sanctioned violence because of their citizenship or because they are serving a sentence? The answer is no, and it should always be no. Since Metro Surge, we have watched ICE continue to shoot people in their cars, leave the grieving families of Keith Porter and Victor Diaz and so many others waiting for answers, expand their budget and footprint, and detain dramatically more people per month. These things happened because it was already culturally normal for law enforcement to operate without accountability. It is the same reason people are marching over the killing of Cohen Wiley, who was supposed to turn two last week. And in Appleton in western Minnesota, ICE and CoreCivic have opened a 1,600-person detention center. This very morning, we learned that there are now detainees there from the good people of the Prairie Alliance for Human Dignity. That is the group of locals who do not want this in their town, and they are holding solidarity events there on Saturday. You can all go. Their info is in the press packets, or go to prairiealliance.org. The asking price for that building was 75 million dollars, but ICE instead went ahead and gave CoreCivic, a private corporation, 495 million taxpayer dollars for it. That happened because it was already culturally normal for private profit to drive over incarceration and forced prison labor. It is very clear that what ICE did to me is the inevitable conclusion of living in a country that never finished abolishing slavery. I am very grateful for our community leaders who have worked all their lives to make those things not normal wherever they show up. That is how we will get accountability for even ICE. So it is the job of the attorneys and I to win this case so that we can thicken the line around what people who call themselves law enforcement are permitted to do to another Another human being. We have now filed three waves of complaints, but to me, they really all say the same thing. We request the cooperation of the federal government in making a good home for our people. We request that your militarized wings lower the shock gloves and the guns that are pointed at your own people to steal power that doesn't belong to you. But our communities also have never had time to wait. We have long known what to do to make a good home. We have long had our heroes. And we will keep doing this while the lawsuits move. So I will pass it to others to talk about what is moving right now in Minnesota around these issues. I'll turn it over to my fellow Minnesotan sociologist and writer, Dr. Amber. My name is Dr. Amber Alton, and I'm a South Minneapolis neighbor and community member. I'm so honored to be here with you all today. And we're all here in solidarity with Ali Rahman, our friend, our neighbor, and a member of our community who was brutalized by mass federal agents when they occupied our city. This lawsuit is a step towards pursuing justice and accountability for the brutality that Ali has suffered at the hands of ICE agents. And it's also a part of the quest for justice for the deaths of of Renee Good and Alex Preddy. For the shooting of Julio Sosa Solis, and for the thousands of our neighbors who were kidnapped away from their homes, families, and communities. And while the experience of what happened to us here in Minnesota was unique in many ways, Operation Metro Surge ultimately exists as a chapter within this nation's larger history of racialized violence against Black and brown communities by those in power to police and punish. Because ICE and the concentration camps that they operate are simply another iteration of American policing, a system that is rooted in racial capitalism and brutality that are the hallmarks of white supremacy. And we have seen time and time again how the system is weaponized against black and brown people as a way to enrich and benefit those who oppress us. And we see that happening right now with ICE. Just a few weeks ago, we learned about how the federal government bought a concentration camp in Appleton, Minnesota, from a private prison company for $420 million above its estimated value. And if this feels confusing to you, it makes sense when you realize that the contractor, CoreCivic, donated half a million dollars to Donald Trump's inauguration fund. This example demonstrates just who these systems are meant to benefit and how black and brown communities are brutalized to materialize those very benefits. And that's why from where I stand, the only real solution to this racialized system of violence is the abolition of ICE and all of our nation's systems of marginalization and brutality. I'm honored to stand here in solidarity with Alia and other members of this community to demand justice and accountability for the brutality that we've all experienced. And while one lawsuit cannot deliver the justice that we demand and that we deserve, it is an important step toward realizing the full potential of the liberatory future that we are all fighting for. I'm so glad that you all are here today, and I'm excited to introduce Francisco Segovia, who is the executive director of COPAL Minnesota. Good morning. My name is Francisco Segovia, executive director of COPAL, and I'm here on behalf of COPAL, Communities Organized Latino Power in Action. Today, we stand in solidarity with Aliyah Abraham, What happened to Aliyah is deeply disturbing. Let us be clear, no government, agency, no badge, and no political agenda gives anyone the authority to strip another human being of their dignity. Aliyah's experience is not simply an isolated incident. It is the reflection of the dangerous consequences of an immigration enforcement operation that brought us fear, intimidation, and violence into our communities. During Operation Metro Search, we witnessed the militarization of our neighborhoods, the targeting of immigrant families, and the erosion of the trust that should exist between communities and public institutions. At COPAL, we believe that human rights are not conditional. They do not depend on where you were born, what language you speak, your immigration status, your disability, or whether the government agrees with you, with your views. And this is precisely why Aliyah's case matters to all of us. Aliyah's experience reminds us that when government power operates without accountability, nobody's rights are secure. Today, it may be an immigrant family. Tomorrow, it may be a person with disability, a community organizer, a protester, or any ordinary resident exercising their constitutional rights. We also recognize Aaliyah's courage, speaking publicly about such traumatic experience takes extraordinary strength. By refusing to remain silent, Aaliyah is helping expose what happened and demanding accountability, not only for herself but protecting all of us. COPAL stands with Aaliyah, we stand with everyone who has experienced abuse, intimidation or the denial of their fundamental rights. We call for a full and independent investigation, accountability for those responsible, and an end to enforcement practices, our human dignity, and constitutional protections. Minnesota is stronger when we protect one another. We cannot build a better society by dehumanizing our humanity. Our humanity is interconnected. When the rights of one person are violated, collective freedom is diminished. Thank you. Now I have the honor to introduce Aliyah, let me see here, it's from the Freedom Fund, sorry about that, I missed the paper here, and now my pen got stuck to the microphone. First I want to thank Alia for her courage and for sharing her story and for demanding accountability from a government that should have never subjected her to this type of violence. What happened to Alia was not simply aggressive federal enforcement. It was state-sanctioned violence. And what our communities endured during Operation Metro Surge was not a series of isolated events. People were terrorized in their own neighborhoods. Families were torn apart. People were assaulted, detained, and stripped of their dignity. We watched armed federal agents exercise power with a horrifying disregard for human life. And the harm did not end when those agents left. It lives in the families who are still afraid, in children who witness the violence, in the people who question whether they are safe. and in peace That is the human cost of state violence. Yet, when violence is carried out in the name of enforcement of public safety, we refuse to accept that. At the Minnesota Freedom Fund, we recognize that these harms are part of a larger system. Of criminalizing poverty, disproportionately incarcerating black and brown people, and the use of detention as a tool for control. These are not isolated failures. These are the consequences of systems permitted to operate without meaningful accountability. But we also know that one person's story can expose an entire system. One person's courage can challenge the power of institutions and one person's demand for justice can create change that goes beyond their own individual experience possible in the first place. And that comes with a responsibility. Our responsibility is not simply to listen, express outrage and then move on. It is to stand behind her and to turn what her story exposes into lasting and systemic change. Alia should never have endured this state-sanctioned violence, and she should not have to carry the burden of demanding accountability alone. We know one story can open the door to systemic change. Our job is to make sure that door does not close behind her. And at this time, I would like to call Chisato up as the last speaker. Hi, everyone. My name is Chisato Kimura, and I'm one of Alia's attorneys at the MacArthur Justice Center. As we heard from everyone who just spoke, Alia's case is unfortunately not unique. It is rooted in this country's history of racialized violence. The tactics DHS officers used to weigh onto her neck and back while she was cuffed, ignoring her pleas for disability accommodations and medical care. There are no legitimate law enforcement or immigration enforcement purposes for this kind of brutality. The only explanation is cruelty. To tell black and brown people, disabled people, to stay home. To deter people from exercising their rights, it's a campaign of control, and the government attempted to use Alia as part of that mission. But they have failed, because Alia and us were fighting back. In bringing this case, we're using just one tool in our toolbox, drawing upon the Constitution, federal statutes, regulations, policies, and even international human rights law to resist against this kind of political violence. We are proud to be in solidarity and in community with countless advocates like Dr. Amber and organizations like COPAL and the Minnesota Freedom Fund who fought back against these injustices across the country and across the years. MJC is proud to represent Alia and other individuals, including Quinton Williams, a special education assistant of Roosevelt High, who's here today with us. They are holding the government accountable for themselves and thousands of others who've been harmed by DHS's violence and abuse. Now, part of Alia's motivation in this fight for justice is to make sure that all those who are harmed by ICE and CBP officers understand their options to pursue justice, including through the FTCA. One important part of that is preserving your claim. The first part of an FTCA claim is to file an administrative complaint to the government agencies responsible for the harm. But critically, this claim must be filed within two years of the incident. As we approach the one-year mark since the start of Metro Surge, it's important for folks interested in pursuing FTCA claims to keep this two-year time limit in mind. Now, once someone's filed an administrative claim, the government has six months to investigate and respond. If they don't respond within six months or deny the claim, then the person can file a lawsuit against the United States and federal district court. And that is what Alia has done today. Filing this lawsuit is the next step in holding the government accountable for what they did to Alia and for the violence they've unleashed across the country. Over the course of the lawsuit, we will unmask the officers and the systems that harmed Alia and so many others. We will demand records. We will question under oath the officers involved. We will call for transparency. Today, Alia joins dozens of others in bravely taking on the United States in federal court and demanding justice from the officers and government who harmed her. We stand proudly with her as together we fight to hold the government accountable, fight for system-wide changes, and fight to make a good home for all of us in the United States. Thank you. And at this time, I'd like to invite Jessica and Alia back up to the podium to take questions from the press. That claim that they have immunity is false. It's just not true. So it's not really a barrier to us because they don't have immunity. Through our lawsuit, we have causes of action. We have laid out the claim in each of the causes of action, and we can go to court. There's no immunity defense that they just automatically have. There are... Legal challenges that we will fight, you know, we expect a motion to dismiss where they will claim various things that they can through the FTCA process, but the idea that they have absolute immunity is just patently false. I don't know the numbers. I do know that other people have filed lawsuits. You know, we saw Renee Good. We saw there was a lawsuit filed yesterday. These are happening. As Chisato shared, you know, there's the six month timeline. So if you kind of do the math on Metro Surge, we are getting to the point where if people did file an admin complaint, they're Lawsuits are now ripening, but you don't have to file right after six months. So I expect this to continue and the numbers to swell as these claims ripen. You know, this didn't change my worldview, but it definitely changed everything about how I move around the world. I am still dealing with lasting injuries, but I'll be honest, the hardest thing for me is knowing that this is part of a much, much longer trajectory that we can do something about. So actually, it has changed all of my interactions with the public because I was a very private person and now people want to talk to me about what's happening in their lives. I'm really grateful that we have organizations like Mr. Derris' organization who would like to end slavery in Minnesota this year, for example, right? These are the things that I think about now. That is what ice accountability means to me. That is the only thing that matters to me at this point. The rest of it I'll figure out. Yeah, these are going to be lifelong injuries. I'm a disabled person of color. I've always looked around for how law enforcement are coming for me in this world. I love people for whom that is an everyday concern. I know that for folks who don't have that experience, it might seem strange. And you know, sometimes it's hard to hear people say that they can't believe this happened. Because what does that feel like if you're from a community, right? Where violence towards your community apparently is so normal that people can't even see it and think this is a surprise. Thank So, you know, that's my answer to that. I'm not probably going to be at the State of the Union a whole bunch of times again. I mean, I'll go if you invite me, right? But, you know, I hope I don't accidentally tie my shoe in front of them or something like that and end up hooked to the wall. Jail, in D.C. again, for silently standing and not moving you. or holding any sign, probably just because I wasn't clapping, actually. Thank you very much, Julie. Yeah, so I'm not worried about what happens in D.C., but I think I'm like a lot of people who have every reason to be concerned about what happens with law enforcement, the conditions under which this happened to me have not changed yet. Like, that's the thing, right? So, I'm waiting. Immigrants who? in a similar fashion, but maybe for a legal reason. I think people have different choices to make. You know, for me, when videos of your assault go viral while you're unconscious, you don't decide if the story is going to be public. You make decisions about what people who might be listening and who want to fight for a just society might need to hear, right? That's what I think about. And since January, as of last week, I've talked to 327 people who have been harmed by law enforcement, some ICE, some not. And I come from a family where we never would have thought to sue. You know, from where the idea of accessing the legal system is a little bit out there because it's always been pointed at us, right? So I think that that's a real barrier, and it's why we've tried to put out as many educational materials, copy-pastable things other people's attorneys can use, try to lower the costs associated with learning how to even do this, to try to make those barriers a little bit lower. Uhs So, yeah, I hope if people want justice, then they know that they can step forward. And you don't actually have to be a U.S. citizen, right? A lot of people think that is the case you as well in order to sue the government. It's a difficult road. It has not been fun being out in public around this. so But I think we need to do this. We can't have this for our people. much. I can just add to that. You know, I think that's an important point. People can file these claims without... A press conference and the first step is filing an SF 95, which can be as simple as just writing down the facts of what happened to you and sending it to the agencies, right? And that preserves the claim. So there are also ways to start to hold the government accountable for people who may be more hesitant to put their stories out there might have greater risks that. Don't require you to go right to court. Putting that claim in preserves the right, and you don't have to go to court six months later. You don't have to go to court one year later. You can go to court later. You can never go to court. There have been examples of movements where when a lot of people file these FTCA claims, it can make the federal government look at them as a whole and see that maybe a few that that have led the way, paved the way for. Some justice across the board. So we certainly hope and support that the idea that more people will bring these claims. I am connected with a lot of lawyers across the Midwest who want to support people who are interested in bringing these claims. So, you know, regardless of status, it is something that is option for everybody. Can you kind of walk us through? Thank From here. We wait. So that's a theme today, right? There's a lot of waiting on the federal government. So we filed our complaint. Complaint, uh, complaint. We serve them then. That's our next step. And then they have 60 days to respond. They can answer. you. And then we can move right to discovery and ask them to give us documents, ask them to answer questions, take depositions. Or they may file a motion to dismiss. And then we have to fight about why we have the right for this case to go forward. So, you know, lawsuits aren't quick. And that's why, you know, we have these other people here today, too, to say, while our lawsuit goes forward, other levers will be moved as well. Law is like the, in what, where are you? Thank Oh, do you want to take that question? I'm there in the room. There's a movement in Congress to make the government more accountable by making the law more strict. you. Right now, if you're a federal law enforcement officer, as you can see, you can't be sued individually. I mean, that's ridiculous. I mean, we know who shot Renee Good. We know the officers. When you see the complaint, you'll see an attachment to the complaint that has the picture of every officer that brutalized Olya and picked her up and carried her like an animal across the street. They should be accountable. They did not follow their training. They did not follow their rules. And federal law needs to be amended. Not only to make criminal prosecutions easier of law enforcement, but also to make civil prosecutions easier. The George Floyd Act. It was introduced right after the George Floyd murder and has gone through several iterations. And some of the amendments I'm talking about are part of that. And I would expect that we'll see it arise again with the current Congress that's coming in in January. Problems and So MacArthur Justice Center does represent several individuals coming out of Midway Blitz as well. MacArthur Justice Center also brought a class action around Broadview Detention Center, which was the processing center during Midway Blitz and beyond. So we have been litigating these issues for the last year. But many of the Midway Blitz cases are on the same timeline. So while we have cases coming out of Midway Blitz, and others do as well, many of those are just getting filed now. I think Miramar Martinez's case was just filed a month ago. So I think we're all going to be learning together about bringing accountability and justice. And that's the work for today. And I think it's important to note that. Midway Blitz, Metro Surge, these are all the same tactics, the same individuals even. Some of the people that were in Quinton Williams' case, which we have been able to identify, were in Midway Blitz and have use of force reports. The administration has known that rogue officers, that the average officer who's going around is violating rights, and they are continuing to send them around our country and brutalizing people. So we hope that these lawsuits will put a stop to that. And just as you mentioned, the names are not out there. The agents, is that part of this, that you both define the names and that they will be commented for that? We will find the names. This is part of it. We have their pictures. We don't know their names, but we have a right to know their names. We have a right to depose them. We have a right to get their records to understand who these individuals were who heard Alia frustrated and confused and react with such violence. So we fully intend to get their names.