SUNNYVALE, Calif. — A Sunnyvale family has filed a federal lawsuit alleging Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers used excessive force while arresting a man in front of his wife and young daughter and that he suffered months of inadequate medical care while in immigration detention before being deported to Mexico.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court by Ulises Peña Lopez, his wife, Aby Peña, and their daughter, names the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and private prison companies GEO Group and CoreCivic as defendants. According to the complaint, the alleged abuse during Peña Lopez’s arrest and detention sparked protests against immigration enforcement across the South Bay last year.
According to the lawsuit, in February 2025, masked ICE agents surrounded Peña Lopez in his truck outside his Sunnyvale apartment as he prepared to leave for work. The complaint alleges, “An ICE officer struck the driver’s side window of Peña Lopez’s truck repeatedly with a baton, and cracked it. When Peña Lopez stepped out of the truck, several officers grabbed him, and his U.S. citizen wife was blocked by ICE agents and watched from the top of the staircase.”…