Los Angeles — A Venezuelan man who was detained by federal immigration officials for eight days despite having valid Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is seeking to hold Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accountable for violating his rights. 

The Miñana Family Center for Immigration Law and Policy (Miñana Center) at the UCLA School of Law today filed an administrative claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) on behalf of a Venezuelan TPS holder who was unlawfully detained. The claim is the first step in seeking damages for unlawful conduct by government officials.  

At issue is a TPS holder’s unlawful detention in September 2025, while he was driving through a Border Patrol checkpoint in Texas. At the time of his detention, a federal court order restored TPS for Venezuela. When agents stopped him, the TPS holder presented his employment authorization document and a notice extending his TPS status. Border Patrol agents detained him despite his repeatedly telling them he had TPS, showing them his documents, and even pleading with agents to check their own website or the copy of the federal court order in his car to confirm his status.  

“What was done to me — and to others — cannot be undone,” said the TPS holder, who wished to remain anonymous. “This complaint is the only way I have to seek some measure of accountability and, hopefully, to add an extra safeguard to a system that too often fails to see the person behind the case.” 

Among the protections provided by the statute, TPS holders are explicitly protected against detention and deportation while their status remains valid and can receive work authorization for specified periods of time.  

“This detention should never have happened,” said Sofía Lopez Franco, staff attorney at the Miñana Center. “In detaining this person despite his valid TPS status, the government disregarded a federal court order restoring TPS for Venezuela and the clear mandate against detention that Congress wrote into the TPS statute. While the FTCA process will not undo what was done, we hope it will result in some accountability for the harm our client has suffered.”  

The TPS holder spent eight days locked up. He was initially held in a Border Patrol facility for two nights, sleeping in an overcrowded freezing room. He was then transferred to an ICE processing center in New Mexico, where officers ignored his valid TPS status. Following advocacy by Miñana Center attorneys with the local U.S. Attorney’s Office, the government finally released him after eight days of unlawful detention.  

He is seeking damages for these legal violations, and for the significant harms he has faced as a result. Even over six months after his release, he continues to suffer from nightmares, nausea, and sweating brought on by his time in detention. 

If the agency does not respond to or settle the claim within six months, or if it denies the claim, he can then file an FTCA suit in federal court.  

Founded in 2020, the Miñana Family Center at the UCLA School of Law expands the law school's role as a national leader in immigration law and policy, generating innovative ideas at the intersection of immigration scholarship and practice and serving as a hub for transforming those ideas into meaningful changes in immigration policy.  

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