Robert “Bob” Peck, of South Portland, is suing the U.S. government, claiming that two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights while he recorded their activities during a surge in ICE activity in Maine in January. The government has 60 days to respond to the suit. 

It’s the first suit filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) against the U.S. government for the actions of federal agents against legal observers during the ICE surge in January, according to David Webbert, Peck’s lawyer. 

Peck filed the initial notice of claim eight days after two unidentified federal agents came to his car window and threatened to arrest and harm him on Jan. 22 after Peck followed the officers from a field office in Scarborough, he said.

He had to wait six months after notifying before filing the suit to give the U.S. government time to respond, the typical protocol in cases filed under the FTCA. Since then, Webbert has been in occasional communication with lawyers for the U.S. attorney general, first sending information about the damage requests and later negotiating the terms of the confidential release of the identities of the two masked agents. 

Webbert intends to serve the two agents as soon as they are named in an effort to get the ball rolling. They will each have 60 days to respond to the suit. 

While he was waiting for the six-month period to elapse, Peck filed a civil complaint in June under the state’s civil rights act, accusing the two unidentified federal immigration agents of violating his First Amendment right to peacefully observe public actions of government officials, as well as his Fourth Amendment right to be free from illegal search and seizure. 

It was the first time a Maine legal observer has sued ICE officers under the state’s civil rights act, according to Webbert. Peck added the U.S. government as a defendant as soon as he could. 

“This is a national issue that we just happened to get on camera,” Webbert said. 

Peck started recording the incident from his vehicle while parked on a side street off Route 1. 

One of the officers told him that “what you’re doing is called impeding federal law enforcement,” and later said “if you continue to impede us and follow us, you will be arrested,” according to the suit.

An officer told Peck that he was violating a federal statute that makes it illegal to forcibly impede, resist or intimidate designated federal officers while they’re performing official duties. The suit alleges that following and observing a vehicle from a safe distance does not constitute interference and requests that the officers receive training to understand the scope of this statute.

“They’re just part of this culture that thinks they’re above the law,” Webbert said. 

He thinks a precedent of legal accountability for law enforcement tactics could prevent instances of violence. 

It’s fresh in Webbert’s mind, less than a month after Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was shot and killed in Biddeford by an ICE agent who was later identified as David Brouillette. Webbert said Peck, his client, wants to set a precedent to protect his immigrant neighbors. 

The Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, ICE and Andrew McCormack, a senior counsel with the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond Monday to requests for comment about the suit.