By Gabriel Arizon and Mike Terry
San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol
The owner of the Valley Car Wash in Van Nuys has filed a $50 million damages claim against the U.S. Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal entities after he was knocked down twice and detained by ICE officers during an unannounced raid on Sept. 9 by said officers searching for undocumented immigrants working there.
Attorneys for Rafie Shouhed filed the claim on Wednesday, Sept. 24, with Homeland Security, ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Los Angeles ICE field office, Office of the Principal Legal Advisor for ICE in Washington D.C. and the federal Customs and Border Protection El Centro Station in Imperial, CA.
Shouhed, 79, accuses the officers of assaulting him twice – both inside and outside of the business – while detaining other workers suspected of being undocumented. He said he sustained numerous injuries to both arms, the right elbow and ribs. He also said he has post-concussive symptoms caused by a traumatic brain injury.
If the claim is rejected or ignored by the agencies for six months, a civil suit can be filed in the United States District Court in LA.
“On Sept. 9., … ICE agents and Border Protection agents illegally and unlawfully assaulted and battered U.S. citizen Mr. Rafie Olla Shouhed, while raiding his car wash,” located on Van Nuys Boulevard, according to lead attorney V. James DeSimone, in the damage claim.
https://studio.youtube.com/video/fjtX9ZgUqYM/edit
DeSimone also stated in the claim that one of the agents had Shouhed – who has three stents in his heart – pinned to the ground with his knee on the elderly man’s neck. Shouhed would be detained for approximately 12 hours at the Metro Detention Center in downtown LA (along with five of his employees). He was denied access to medical care while there, even though he was fingerprinted and identified as a U.S. citizen.
“He immediately asked for medical care. His nephew was there and also asked for medical care for his uncle. Shouhed was having great difficulty breathing because of the injured ribs,” DeSimone told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol on Wednesday.
Shouhed would eventually be released and hospitalized to receive treatment for his injuries.
“The Border Protection and ICE agents’ conduct … violates various provisions of the Federal Constitution, including, among others, the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and deliberate indifference to serious medical conditions in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution,” the claim stated.
It went on to say, “The conduct of the Border Protection and ICE agents on Sept. 9, 2025, meets the elements for the torts of assault, battery and violation of the Bane Act under California Law. These agents unnecessarily physically assaulted Mr. Shouhed, causing serious injury while Mr. Shouhed was not committing any crime and/or was not a threat to the agents.”
Shouhed’s attorneys have scheduled a press conference in Los Angeles today, Sept. 25, to further discuss the claim.
Video footage of the confrontation taken by surveillance cameras at the car wash showed a masked agent running down a narrow hallway inside the car wash’s main office as Shoushed ran toward him from the opposite direction. The agent then pushes him to the ground before continuing to run out the front door, as Shoushed stands back up and follows him.
Outside the main office, Shoushed can be seen trying to engage agents as they’re detaining one of his employees, claiming he had legal paperwork for his workers, identifying himself as the business owner and asking if he could answer any questions. A second agent appears to grab Shouhed by his shirt as another comes running and tackles the elderly man to the ground.
The video shows a total of three agents restraining and putting Shoushed in handcuffs.
“You can see my arm … is all blue and black,” said Shouhed, after being released from the hospital.
“They got one of my guys and I told them, ‘Hold on. Most of these people have papers. We have documentation here,’” he said at the time. “And the only thing they said was, ‘You don’t (expletive) with ICE. We are here,’ and they threw me on the floor. And three of them jumped on me and they were sitting on me.
“I was asking them, ‘Let me talk to somebody. I need to go home, I need my medicine. I am hungry.’ [They said], ‘There is nothing we can do. You have to wait.’
“What they are doing is not nice and it’s not right,” said Shouhed.
Knowingly hiring, recruiting, or referring illegal aliens for employment is a federal crime under the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986. Violations can lead to both civil and criminal penalties, depending on the severity and intent of the offense.
Looks like ‘David Smith’ missed the entire point of this article. IF the business owner broke the law then that would be handled in a white-collar court of law, not by egregious assault from cowardly masked goons who have no training, are not deputized law enforcement, and who have no jusrisdiction to destroy property and assault/murder American citizens over assumed and unproven immigration violation ‘claims’. The ‘agents’ in question had no facts, no names of who they were looking for, no self control and no RIGHT to conduct themselves in this fashion. The business owner will win the lawsuit, and the TRUE PATRIOT AMERICAN taxpayers will pickup the bill once again. Shame on this entire administration and shame on those who blindly follow them down this path of destruction. There is no ‘great again’, compare your situation to that of 3 yrs ago and 11 yrs ago David… and be HONEST to the truth. God bless America and God damn the false prophets who seek to destroy our beautiful melting pot.