By admin 
An Apex teen who was detained last year by immigration agents despite being a U.S. citizen is now seeking damages from the Trump administration for what he says was a wrongful arrest and “unjust” treatment by the officers.
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On Nov. 18, Fernando Vazquez Orea — who was born in Raleigh and was 18 when he was detained — was working a landscaping job in Cary when he was approached by immigration officers near the work site, The News & Observer previously reported. The agents allegedly pinned him against a gate, handcuffed him — and despite seeing his N.C. Real ID — detained him and put him in the back of an unmarked SUV.
That interaction, and the treatment that followed, now serve as the basis of Vazquez’s argument — filed by the ACLU of North Carolina in a flurry of other legal claims. He alleges immigration officers targeted him based on the color of his skin and mistreated him during the arrest.
“The entire experience left me feeling powerless, frightened, humiliated, and deeply shaken,” Vazquez wrote in a statement announcing the legal challenge. “It has had a lasting emotional impact on me. I believe what happened to me was unjust, and I am seeking accountability and justice for what I experienced.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return a request Thursday for comment.
The immigration stop came on the heels of the Trump administration’s “Operation Charlotte’s Web” that aimed to target “the worst of the worst” of violent criminals in the Charlotte area, with federal agents also targeting towns across the Triangle.
Vazquez said after immigration agents understood he was born in the U.S., one of the officers starting swearing, pulled over to an “isolated wooded area,” tossed his wallet and cards out of the vehicle and “dumped him there,” leaving him to find his way back to the job site, the ACLU alleges.
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Vazquez took a video of the interaction, which amassed more than 9 million views on TikTok, with viewers voicing outrage about the immigration officers’ “insane” treatment of him.
The Raleigh native graduated from Vernon Malone College and Career Academy in Raleigh and was detained just minutes away from his former middle school, Reedy Creek. His parents are from Mexico, and his father — who has a legal work permit and was in the process of obtaining citizenship as of November — works with him as a landscaper.
Vazquez’s experience felt like “getting kidnapped,” he told The N&O in November.
“The encounter left Mr. Vazquez with wrist injuries from the handcuffs and lasting emotional trauma, including persistent anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and fear of being stopped and detained again simply because he is Latino,” the ACLU said.
Claims filed against Trump administration
Vazquez’s damage claim joins more than 50 other across 17 states filed by the ACLU on behalf of people allegedly harmed by federal law enforcement under the Trump administration.
That includes U.S. citizen Willy Wender Aceituno, of Charlotte, who alleges immigration agents shattered his truck’s window, pulled him from his vehicle and threw him onto the broken glass. The ACLU alleges federal agents then drove away with Aceituno — even though he told federal agents he was a U.S. citizen — and left him on the side of the road while bleeding.
“Mr. Vazquez and Mr. Aceituno’s damages claims are part of a national effort to hold the federal government accountable and challenge the unlawful and abusive tactics that have harmed communities across our state and country,” Corina Scott, a staff Attorney at the ACLU of N.C., wrote in a statement. “North Carolinians have repeatedly witnessed and experienced these harms firsthand, and these claims are a meaningful step toward accountability and recourse.”
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