LEBANON — A Guatemalan immigrant who has worked at a dairy farm in Claremont for 14 years was questioned by plainclothes Customs and Border Protection officers inside a Lebanon thrift store in March and was ultimately detained and arrested in what he says was a violation of his constitutional rights, according to a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of him and other immigrants in federal court.

Agents on March 20 staked out a Chevrolet Suburban with two Hispanic men inside it in Lebanon, ran the New Hampshire license plate number and claimed their investigation turned up no valid Social Security number associated with the owner of the vehicle, Florentin Avila-Lucas, who was one of the two men inside the store, according to a report written by Border Patrol agents James Loomis and Brendan Burns.

That report is contained within the lawsuit filed by the Massachusetts and New Hampshire American Civil Liberties Union affiliates on behalf of the 40-year-old Avila-Lucas and others who the organization says are being unnecessarily jailed while their cases go through the immigration court system.

The government is seeking to deport Avila-Lucas, contending he is an undocumented immigrant. ACLU-NH attorneys declined to comment on his immigration status, citing the pending lawsuits. New Hampshire Public Radio brought the case to light Wednesday and in June when it reported the ACLU had filed the suit that accuses the federal government of denying immigrants who are believed to be undocumented their due process rights while they’re detained.

The documents, which also are contained in a separate Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday by ACLU-NH against Customs and Border Protection, also show that agents are using small-scale undercover tactics in addition to large-scale roadside checkpoints to arrest and detain people they suspect are undocumented. A second report filed with the lawsuit says that Border Patrol agents conducted similar small-scale patrols in Hanover and White River Junction over the summer that resulted in numerous arrests.

The arrests have prompted an uproar in the Upper Valley, and Hartford will put a new ordinance to voters in March that some say will provide greater protections for undocumented immigrants in town.

Avila-Lucas’ encounter with the agents started around 12:30 p.m. March 20, when he and his brother-in-law went into the Listen Thrift Store on Mechanic Street in Lebanon to shop for work clothes and Loomis, an agent, began browsing the same section of the store. Loomis engaged the men in a conversation and learned that they spoke broken English and that Avila-Lucas’ brother-in-law was from Guatemala, according to Loomis and Burns’ report.

The agents claimed they followed the men into the thrift store “to further observe them and potentially engage in a consensual encounter,” the report states. After the initial conversation, Loomis left the store and joined his counterpart, Burns, who was in an unmarked vehicle, telling Burns that Avila-Lucas and his brother-in-law “may be undocumented immigrants,” according to their report.

Meanwhile, the two men continued to shop inside the thrift store they frequented, but apparently took too long for the agents, who re-entered the store and asked the men to exit, Loomis’ and Burns’ report says. Once outside, the agents told the men they were with Border Patrol and after questioning, arrested and detained the men on suspicion that they weren’t in the United States legally, their report states.

However, an affidavit Avila-Lucas filed gives a detailed account of what he says happened that day both inside and outside the store, which differs from the information contained in the agents’ report.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained Avila-Lucas at the Strafford County House of Corrections in New Hampshire and then at Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Plymouth, Mass., after his arrest outside Listen. He was detained for more than three months, but he has since been released.

The ACLU affiliates, with Avila-Lucas and two other men, one from Nashua, N.H., and another from Brockton, Mass., individually and on behalf of others in their position, filed the federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in June, against about a dozen people, including U.S. Attorney General William Barr, on counts of detention in violation of the U.S. Constitution and detention in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.

Barr and the other parties responded to the suit on Aug. 16, saying they deny that the current processes related to removal proceedings are unconstitutional.

According to Avila-Lucas’ affidavit, Loomis didn’t tell the men who he was inside the store, but “insisted twice” that Avila-Lucas go outside to look at his motor vehicle registration. Avila-Lucas said he recently registered the vehicle, so he thought maybe there was a problem. Avila-Lucas said one of the men became “very aggressive,” touched his back and started to push him toward the exit door of the store, according to the affidavit.

“I felt embarrassed because I was a regular at the store and knew the cashiers,” he wrote. “I let go of the cap (I was buying) and went outside with the man. The man followed behind me.”

Avila-Lucas, his brother-in-law and the agents went to the suburban, and one of the agents said: “Open the door, I need to see the papers for your car,” according to Avila-Lucas’ affidavit. Avila-Lucas handed an agent his license and registration papers, and the agent threw them on the ground, saying the vehicle registration was not valid, the affidavit states.

The conversation then shifted, according to the affidavit.

“Where are your papers?” an agent asked.

Avila-Lucas contends he still at this time didn’t know the men were Border Patrol agents because neither had identified themselves.

“I did not understand what was happening with all the anti-immigration talk in the news, I thought it might be a random person harassing me because I am speaking Spanish and have brown skin,” Avila-Lucas wrote.

Avila-Lucas bent down to pick up the registration papers, and an agent grabbed his hand and pushed him to the ground, the affidavit states, causing injuries, he said.

“I told him my legs were hurting and he said that was not his problem,” Avila-Lucas wrote.

After an agent handcuffed him, the agent showed him his badge, he wrote.

The situation that unfolded on busy Mechanic Street in broad daylight prompted local police to pull up and ask if everything was OK, the affidavit from Avila-Lucas states. Avila-Lucas, who the agents said entered the United States illegally by crossing through the desert in 2002, had been working on the farm in Claremont since 2005, according to letters of support contained within the lawsuit. Avila-Lucas has no criminal record, the agents noted in their report.

All of the letters have the authors’ names redacted, but two people identify as the owners of the farm Avila-Lucas worked at.

“He has done a very commendable job at all tasks he has undertaken,” one of the farmers wrote, adding that Avila-Lucas is well-known in Claremont.

“I have been told on numerous occasions by prominent community members that he is a pleasure to have in the city of Claremont,” the letter states. “They comment that he is pleasant and respectful in all circumstances. Florentin has a job and a home here as long as he wants it.”

It isn’t clear where Avila-Lucas is living currently; the ACLU said he is in New Hampshire.

The Massachusetts court case is ongoing, as is the case the ACLU filed on Tuesday, which alleges Customs and Border Protection hasn’t promptly responded to a Freedom of Information Act request nor disclosed the requested records.

The FOIA request seeks records relating to non-checkpoint patrol operations in New Hampshire, Border Patrol’s communications with local law enforcement and citizenship inquiries of immigrants.

“The request arises from widespread public interest in immigration enforcement in New Hampshire after CBP’s aggressive patrol operations began occurring in places almost 100 miles from the Canadian border,” the lawsuit states.

Customs and Border Protection officials haven’t yet responded in that case.

Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.