Laguna Beach agrees to $18,750 settlement with DACA recipient detained by city police

The city of Laguna Beach has reached a settlement with a Laguna resident who was held by local police for federal immigration officers in 2018 despite his status as a DACA recipient.

Under the Obama-era program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States illegally as children qualified for relief from federal deportation action.

As part of the settlement approved Jan. 16, Laguna Beach will pay Edgar Torres Gutierrez $18,750 and show a training video on pertinent immigration law to all sworn officers and newly hired officers in its Police Department.

Additionally, the settlement allowed for Torres Gutierrez to file an official complaint with the Laguna Beach Police Department, which is expected to trigger an internal investigation into the circumstances of his detention and transfer, according to the UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, whose students helped represent Torres Gutierrez.

“I’m really happy that [Torres Gutierrez] got an outcome that he wanted,” Evan Ormond, a third-year law student who worked on the case, said Wednesday. “It was a really long process ... for him, and the initial experience was traumatic for him.”

“We hope the complaint we filed today [Wednesday] will result in some sort of additional changes or acknowledgment from the Laguna Beach Police Department,” Ormond said. “[Torrez Gutierrez] wanted some institutional change to result from this.”

The settlement is in response to a claim filed with the city in November 2018 by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California on behalf of Torres Gutierrez.

On June 3 that year, Torres Gutierrez — who is studying sociology at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa — was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of reckless driving but was held by Laguna police to be transferred into federal custody at the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the agency was informed of the arrest.

That day he was transferred to an ICE facility in Los Angeles, interrogated and released the same day without immigration charges.

“I still think about my experience with the Laguna Beach police,” Torres Gutierrez said in a statement. “When the officer told me I was not going to be able to go home, I became fearful. I also felt betrayed. I take responsibility for the actions that led to my arrest, but I didn’t deserve to be treated differently than other residents who put their trust in the police.”

The Laguna Beach Police Department referred all requests for comment Wednesday to City Attorney Philip Kohn. City spokeswoman Cassie Walder said the city would have no comment.

The complaint filed Wednesday accuses the Police Department of violating Torres Gutierrez’s constitutional right against unlawful search and seizure and his right to due process, in addition to failing to notify him of ICE’s request for his detainment and violating the California Values Act, which prevents state and local law enforcement from using their resources on behalf of federal immigration enforcement agencies.

Torres Gutierrez said in an interview Wednesday that he felt it is important that his experience sends a message to other law enforcement agencies throughout the county and state. He added that it’s important for DACA recipients and others in the immigrant community to hear of his story so they might come forward with their own experiences.

“If you think your rights have been violated, it’s important to speak up and seek help,” he said. “There are organizations that will galvanize to help you and seek justice.”

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