Bernardo Mendia v. John Garcia

Bernardo Mendia sued two agents of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), seeking damages for the time he spent in pre-trial detention on state criminal charges allegedly as a result of the agents’ wrongful acts. The district court granted the government’s motion to dismiss Mendia’s lawsuit on the ground that he lacks Article III standing to pursue his claims. We conclude that Mendia’s standing allegations are adequate to survive a motion to dismiss.

According to Mendia’s pro se complaint, the State of California arrested him in May 2007 and charged him with “various alleged financial crimes.” A state court granted Mendia bail, but he lacked the means to post it without the assistance of a bail bondsman. In June 2007, before Mendia could post the required bail, the defendant ICE agents interviewed him at the county jail. Mendia told them he is a United States citizen. To back that assertion up, he gave the agents his Social Security number and informed them he had a valid United States passport. Mendia then invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, directing the agents to contact his lawyer at the county Public Defender’s office if they…