FTCA Claim Project

The ACLU of Colorado filed three claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) on July 29, 2026 on behalf of Fernando Jaramillo Solano and his two children, ages 15 and 12. The claims are based on ICE’s unlawful arrest of Mr. Jaramillo Solano and his children in Durango, Colorado.

On October 27, 2025, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) stopped the family, mistaking them for someone else, and unlawfully arrested them anyways. Mr. Jaramillo Solano was driving his children to school. ICE sexually assaulted Mr. Jaramillo Solano’s 12-year-old daughter during the arrest. Mr. Jaramillo Solano and the children had timely-filed asylum applications pending when ICE unlawfully arrested them.

After arresting them, ICE took the family to a temporary ICE holding facility in Durango and kept them there for approximately 30 hours. The facility was extremely cold. There were no windows and the lights remained on the entire time. There was one cement bed and a rigid chair for the three of them. Each received a single, cold hamburger and a cold soup. Mr. Jaramillo Solano and his son had to share an open-air toilet. ICE then transferred the family out of Colorado in violation of a federal court order.

The family is no longer in the United States and continues to experience significant and debilitating mental health symptoms because of the arrest and incarceration.

The claims allege that ICE officers committed assault, battery, engaged in false imprisonment, were negligent, received negligent training and supervision, and committed both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The government has six months from the date it received the claims to decide whether it will settle or deny the claims. The claims can be brought in the federal District Court of Colorado if ICE either denies or ignores the claims.

The ACLU of Colorado filed these FTCA claims as part of an effort to hold ICE accountable for their brutality, together with ACLU National's Immigrants' Rights Project and more than a dozen ACLU affiliates across the country that have submitted 54 FTCA claims alleging a wide range of abuses by ICE officers against noncitizens and U.S. citizens alike. You can read more about The People v. Agents of Chaos and Cruelty Campaign here: https://www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/the-people-v-agents-of-chaos-and-cruelty.