OCALA, Fla. — Nonprofit activist organizations filed a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of a legal permanent resident from Jamaica after they say he was detained by Florida deputies who falsely thought he was in the United States illegally.
Through a Tampa-based law firm, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union are suing on behalf of Neville Christopher Brooks who they say was wrongfully detained.
The lawsuit is against Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods and deputies, who the groups argue held Brooks, of Ocala, without any warrant from federal immigration enforcement.
"The case challenges his unlawful detention and MCSO’s discriminatory policy of detaining and referring all foreign-born individuals, or those perceived as foreign-born, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), even if they are American citizens or otherwise lawfully in this country," the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote in an email.
The SPLC says deputies detained Brooks for a since-dismissed misdemeanor in August 2020 – but kept holding him for ICE after he posted bond, even though the feds reportedly told the sheriff's office he wasn't subject to detention.
"The Marion County Sheriff and his deputies never discussed Mr. Brooks’ citizenship or immigration status with him, nor did they receive any detainer or warrant from ICE," wrote the SPLC. "They simply profiled him and presumed he was in this country unlawfully, solely based on his foreign birth, even though jail records showed that he had a valid social security number and Florida commercial driver’s license, neither of which he could have gotten unless he was lawfully in the U.S."
Lawyers representing Brooks say he was held for an extra night in a "crowded jail" during the pandemic. Brooks tested positive for COVID in an emergency room five days later, the SPLC said.
“The Supreme Court has made clear that local officials cannot make immigration arrests on their own, or treat people differently based solely on where they were born," ACLU staff attorney My Khanh Ngo wrote in a statement. "But that is what the Sheriff’s Office did here to Mr. Brooks. They threatened to separate him from his family and his life in the U.S., just because he was born in Jamaica. And we know that Mr. Brooks’ case is just the tip of the iceberg..."
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, is seeking damages and injunctive and declaratory relief.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to the Marion County Sheriff's Office Thursday afternoon. We will update this story if we hear back.
