Two pro-immigration groups filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins and others for allegedly violating the civil rights of a Frederick woman arrested last year.

Lawyers for LatinoJustice PRLDEF in New York, Casa of Maryland in Silver Spring, as well as lawyers from Nixon Peabody, a Washington, D.C. law firm, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt on Tuesday, then held a press conference on the steps of the federal courthouse.

"The Frederick County Sheriff's Office is engaging in discriminatory practices, targeting individuals based on their race and ethnicity," said Jose Perez, associate counsel with LatinoJustice, at the press conference.

Jenkins (R) did not return phone calls Tuesday.

But on Monday, Jenkins said he was looking into the arrest of the Frederick woman, Roxana Orellana Santos, and trying to determine what happened.

Jenkins also said he was not daunted by the lawsuit, saying that Casa of Maryland, an immigrant advocacy group, has always been a critic of his office's participation in the federal 287g program, which enables some of his deputies to check the immigration status of people they arrest.

"Bring it on," he said. "If we need to start the battle to save the country, we can start it right here."

The lawsuit is also against the Frederick Board of County Commissioners and current and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. They include, Julie Myers, former assistant secretary; Calvin McCormick, field office director with the Office of Detention and Removal in Baltimore; and James A. Dinkins, special agent in charge of the Office of Investigations in Baltimore.

The complaint alleges at 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2008, Roxana Orellana Santos was sitting on a curb at a grassy area behind a food co-op near Evergreen Square on Buckeystown Pike in Frederick, eating a sandwich on her lunch break when two deputies with the Frederick County Sheriff's Office approached her and questioned her immigration status.

The lawsuit names Jeffrey Openshaw as one of the deputies to approach Orellana Santos. Lawyers said Tuesday they do not know the name of the second deputy, named only as "John Doe" in the suit.

Openshaw did not immediately return a voicemail for comment.

The suit states that when the two deputies approached Orellana Santos, one asked for her identification. She told the deputy that she did not have any on her.

One of the deputies then asked for her passport. Orellana Santos told the deputy that her passport was at home, court papers state.

The two deputies continued to stand over Orellana Santos, watching her and talking to each other.

After a few minutes, she remembered she had a national identification card from El Salvador, where she is from, in her purse. She showed it the deputies, the lawsuit states, then one of the deputies placed a call on his radio.

After 15 minutes, Orellana Santos tried to stand up, but a deputy put his hands on her shoulders to prevent her from leaving. She was then handcuffed and placed in the backseat of the cruiser, the suit states.

She was transported to the Frederick County Adult Detention Center, where she was detained for one night and then transported to the Baltimore Detention Center.

Two days later, she was transported to the Dorchester County Jail in Cambridge. On Nov. 11, she was granted supervised release for humanitarian concerns, the suit states.

The suit states Jenkins went beyond the department's 287g agreement with ICE, and the actions of the sheriff's office were discriminatory and unlawful.

Deputies have been checking the immigration status of every person arrested in Frederick County since April 2008 as part of the federal 287g program.

The lawsuit names the Frederick County commissioners because they provide funding for the Frederick County Sheriff's Office, the suit states.

Frederick County Attorney John Mathias said Tuesday he had yet to receive a copy of the lawsuit, and declined to comment.

Under the 287g program, the immigration status of everyone arrested is checked by specially trained deputies at the Frederick County Detention Center. If a person is found to be in the country illegally, deputies notify ICE, which can begin the deportation proceedings.

Perez, associate counsel with LatinoJustice, refused to say whether Orellana Santos was living in the country legally.

The lawsuit alleges the actions of the sheriff's deputies violated Orellana's rights established under the 1964 Civil Rights Act as well as the Fourth and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

"Frederick County is the center of injustice, where things have happened to a very large immigrant community," said Kerry O'Brien, Casa's director of services. "It's just not right that Sheriff Jenkins has taken it upon himself to rid the community of these people."

The lawsuit claims the two deputies who arrested Orellana Santos did not receive training under the 287g program.

Under the program, 26 deputies received four weeks of training in immigration law, intercultural relations and the use of the Department of Homeland Security's database to positively identify whether those they arrest are illegal immigrants. Officials with ICE conducted the training.

O'Brien said they received a list of the 26 officers, and Openshaw was not on the list.

But O'Brien also acknowledged that since they do not know the identity of the other deputy, they could not verify whether he is one of the 26 deputies who received 287g training.

The complaint alleges Orellana Santos spent weeks in the custody of ICE before being released.

She is seeking a jury trial and compensatory damages of not less than $1 million.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of new 287g guidelines ICE developed to address concerns that some police agencies participating in the program engage in racial profiling.

Under the new guidelines, ICE has developed three levels of priority for deporting illegal immigrants who commit certain crimes.

Level 1 priority will go to those who have been arrested or convicted of committing major drug offenses or violent crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery or kidnapping. Level 2 priority will go to minor drug offenses and other crimes such as burglary, larceny, fraud and money laundering. Level 3 is all other offenses.

Jenkins and ICE formally signed the new agreement on Oct. 29, the same day ICE congratulated Jenkins on the arrest and deportation of 500 illegal immigrants since the program began in 2008.

"How many of those 500 were like the plaintiff?" Perez said. "A mother of a 2-year-old, sitting outside eating her lunch."

E-mail Sherry Greenfield at sgreenfield@gazette.net.