Mass. immigration lawyer, vocal critic of ICE, says feds took his phone without cause
A well-known Massachusetts immigration attorney says federal agents cornered him at Logan International Airport earlier this week and confiscated his phone without justification, according to a lawsuit he filed to retrieve the device.
Andrew Lattarulo, who represents thousands of clients in immigration proceedings, said he was approached by a group of Customs and Border Protection agents and one Homeland Security Investigations official after landing Sunday night on a flight from Aruba.
The agents did not present a warrant or a reason for detaining Lattarulo, but said they had stopped him for a "border search," Lattarulo, of North Andover, wrote in a civil rights lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Boston.
Among Lattarulo's clients are members of a Worcester family targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose chaotic arrest outside their home drew in May intense scrutiny .
Lattarulo's lawsuit seeks the immediate return of his cell phone, an immediate stop to any search of the phone and an order for the federal government to destroy any material it obtained from the device.
The phone "contains confidential attorney-client privileged communications," the lawsuit said, jeopardizing the rights of both Lattarulo and his clients.
In addition to helping run the Chelsea immigration law firm Georges Cote LLP, Lattarulo provides nearly 22,000 followers on Instagram with advice on their rights and how to respond if stopped by immigration agents.
Lattarulo has been a vocal critic of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest and detention tactics.
"The way that they're arresting people is putting the public at risk," he said in a May interview with WCVB .
"We believe Attorney Lattarulo was targeted because he represents clients in immigration-related proceedings, and he has amplified the government's own enforcement priorities via social media to immigrant communities and anyone else who might be interested," Lattarulo's attorneys, Mary Lemay and Patrick Hanley, said in a statement Friday.
"Public criticism of our government is protected speech under the First Amendment," they said. "We initiated this suit to protect not only Attorney Lattarulo's constitutional rights, but also those of his clients."
Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and ICE did not respond to requests for comment.
In an order Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs barred the federal government "from conducting any searches or further searches" of the cell phone "and from transmitting, analyzing, or otherwise using any data already gathered" from it.
The lawsuit names top Trump administration immigration and Homeland Security officials, as well as the three agents for Customs and Border Protection and one Homeland Security official who stopped Lattarulo at Logan Airport but refused to provide their names.
The agents stopped Lattarulo as he disembarked a JetBlue flight in Boston on Sunday with his brother, also an immigration attorney, and a group of friends.
Lattarulo identified himself as an immigration lawyer, he said. Asked for his cell phone, he told the agents that the iPhone 15 Pro Max contained confidential communications between him and clients or other lawyers.
The agents told Lattarulo "that if he did not give them his phone, they would physically remove it from him," the lawsuit said. They "informed Lattarulo that they would be taking his phone with or without his cooperation."
The agents did not request Lattarulo's passcode. They seized his phone and provided him with a "Detention Notice and Custody Receipt for Detained Property," the lawsuit said. Though they did not give Lattarulo an estimate for when the cell phone would be returned to him, the agents "made it clear that the phone would be searched."
Lattarulo was not arrested and said the agents did not search him or his baggage. He said they were solely focused on his cell phone.
The agents "did not have reasonable suspicion that Lattarulo had committed, was committing, or was about to commit a crime," the lawsuit said.
Instead, Lattarulo said he was targeted because he is an immigration attorney and outspoken on U.S. immigration policy.
His Instagram account is popular among Boston-area immigrants, and some videos garner hundreds of thousands of views. Many are critical of President Donald Trump's immigration platform and calls for mass deportations, and accuse immigration agents of using illegal practices to detain migrants, the lawsuit said.
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