\n<\/p>\n
Aliya Rahman speaks during a forum on use of force by Department of Homeland Security agents, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on February 3, 2026. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n On January 13, Aliya Rahman was on her way to a doctor\u2019s appointment<\/a> when ICE agents smashed the glass out of her car windows at a Minneapolis intersection, pulled her out of her car, hauled her down the street<\/a> by her arms and legs, and detained her. Rahman\u00cf\u2014a disabled Bangladeshi-American woman with a traumatic brain injury and autism\u2014blacked out from her injuries on the floor of the Whipple detention center. When she woke up in the emergency room, she learned that she was being treated for \u201cinjuries consistent with assault,\u201d<\/a> according to her lawyers.<\/p>\n Now, Rahman plans to ensure her ordeal comes at a cost to the agency that harmed her. On April 16th, Rahman\u2019s legal team filed a federal tort claim against ICE<\/a>, seeking monetary restitution for their client\u2019s treatment at the agency\u2019s hands. It\u2019s a tactic more and more people are using to seek accountability for mistreatment and violence done by federal agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was never asked for ID, never told I was under arrest, never read my rights, and never charged with a crime,\u201d Rahman said. Since her detention, ICE\u2019s official X account has posted video footage<\/a> of the moments before her arrest, implying that she has broken the law: \u201c18 U.S.C. \u00a7 111 criminalizes impeding or interfering with federal officers.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a \u201cblatant misinformation campaign,\u201d Rahman\u2019s lawyer, Jessica Gingold, told Mother Jones<\/em>, adding that because of these posts, Rahman has received threats and harassment online. Her client, she said, was \u201cgoing about her daily life, trying to go to the doctor, and ended up unconscious on the floor in a detention center.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Under US law, it is near-impossible<\/a> for a person to file a civil rights lawsuit against an individual federal agent, the way someone who\u2019s been hurt by a local or state police officer could. But an increasing number of people hurt by ICE and DHS agents are filing tort claims<\/a>\u2014demanding monetary compensation for what has been done to them\u2014through a byzantine process governed by the Federal Tort Claims Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUnder the Federal Tort Claims Act we can file a claim for monetary damages. That\u2019s what we can ask for,\u201d Gingold, of the MacArthur Justice Center, told Mother Jones<\/em>. \u201cWe can\u2019t ask for systems change under the FTCA. But we do feel strongly that [if] more people do this, demand their due for the harm that\u2019s been wreaked over this country\u2026that itself could make systems change happen, right?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n An ICE agent told the Washington Post<\/em> that the agency received 400 tort claims<\/a> in fiscal year 2025. Among the claimants: an undocumented immigrant in Chicago seeking $1 million<\/a> in damages after he said he was body-slammed and put in a chokehold by a DHS agent, a 79-year-old US citizen<\/a> in California who is seeking $50 million after federal agents shoved him to the ground and broke his ribs, and the wife of a farmworker who died of injuries sustained during an ICE raid<\/a> is seeking $47 million.<\/p>\n And Rahman, now, is likely to be one of the most public faces of this tactic: since her arrest, she\u2019s continued to speak up for immigration reform, attended the State of the Union as Ilhan Omar\u2019s guest\u2014and she\u2019s been arrested a second time<\/a>, for standing up during the State of the Union. (She was released without charge.)\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur nation lacks rules and accountability around what a person claiming to be law enforcement can do to another human being, and I am not afraid to keep working on this problem even after ICE is gone,\u201d Rahman said<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n But though ICE and DHS are facing billions of dollars in potential tort claims, the process is likely to be slow. Filing a tort claim, Gingold said, is relatively simple: you start by filling out a form. <\/a>\u201cWhat\u2019s required is not much: you just need to be able to say, this is the harm that happened.\u201d Then, the agency has six months to agree to pay, or contest your claim. Often, though, they ignore tort claims altogether, Gingold said. If that six-month clock runs out, then a person harmed by an ICE agent would have the opportunity to take the agency to court.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf the agency gets enough of these and understands that treating people inhumanely, ignoring disability, targeting people for their race is costly, that can lead to changes in how they function,\u201d Gingold said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reporter Amanda Moore was on the ground and captured video footage of officers forcefully removing Rahman from her vehicle during the arrest.<\/p>\n