Immigration Raid at Customs Officer’s Home Leads to Suit

James and Sheila Slaughter said that when they answered the door of their home in San Luis, Ariz., on a July afternoon last year, they were surprised to find five armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers strapped into bulky bulletproof vests accusing them of harboring an illegal immigrant. “Is this ‘Candid Camera’?” Mrs. Slaughter recalled asking. That irritated the lead officer, her husband said Tuesday. “He said: ‘No, it isn’t “Candid Camera.” You need to step back into the middle of the room.’ ” The couple said they complied, and the officers prepared to search their home. Mr. Slaughter, a six-foot, 285-pound former Marine, said he then told them, “Look fellas, do you guys realize that I’m a U.S. Customs K-9 officer at the San Luis land port?” “The lead officer’s eyes got about as big and round as silver dollars, and the three guys who were standing just inside the door went straight outside,” said Mr. Slaughter, 51, who with a Labrador retriever, Whitey, searches cars at the Mexican border for narcotics. “They left without saying a word. They knew they messed up.” The Slaughters recently filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Phoenix accusing the Department of Homeland Security of violating their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. They are seeking $500,000 from each of the five officers...NY Times