{"id":134760,"date":"2025-10-07T13:07:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T21:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/07\/immigration-attorney-critical-of-ice-receives-temporary-restraining-order-preventing-search-of-his-phone\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T13:07:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T21:07:55","slug":"immigration-attorney-critical-of-ice-receives-temporary-restraining-order-preventing-search-of-his-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/07\/immigration-attorney-critical-of-ice-receives-temporary-restraining-order-preventing-search-of-his-phone\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration Attorney Critical Of ICE Receives Temporary Restraining Order Preventing Search Of His Phone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, attorney Andrew Lattarulo<\/a> was on his way home from Aruba when his iPhone 15 Pro Max was seized by Homeland Security and Border Control agents at Boston Logan International Airport. Perhaps un-coincidentally, Lattarulo is a well-known immigration in the Boston area \u2014 his clients include the father of a 4-month old whose arrest by ICE drew public scrutiny<\/a> \u2014 and has a popular social media presence that calls out problematic practices of immigration agents and is critical of Donald Trump\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

As a result, he filed a lawsuit<\/a> alleging violations of his First and Fourth Amendment rights. Lattarulo also filed an emergency motion <\/a>seeking a temporary restraining order blocking the search of his phone and its return, as it contains confidential client information, as well as privileged information between himself and other attorneys. As stated in the motion, \u201cThe seizure was made eight hours after plaintiff had been inspected by United States Customs and Border Protection at a border crossing. Plaintiff\u2019s phone was unlawfully seized and most likely searched in violation of plaintiff\u2019s First and Fourth Amendments, and the constitutional rights of his clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

District of Massachusetts Judge Allison D. Burroughs\u00a0granted the TRO<\/a>, barring the government from searching the phone or analyzing any data that may have already been collected.<\/p>\n

Lattarulo\u2019s attorneys, Mary Lemay and Patrick Hanley from Butters Brazilian, said<\/a>, \u201cWe believe attorney Lattarulo was targeted because he represents clients in immigration-related proceedings, and he has amplified the government\u2019s own enforcement priorities via social media to immigrant communities and anyone else who might be interested.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cPublic criticism of our government is protected speech under the First Amendment. We initiated this suit to protect not only attorney Lattarulo\u2019s constitutional rights, but also those of his clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this early success may not translate to ultimate victory. In 2021, Texas immigration attorney Adam A. Malik had his phone seized<\/a> by border agents. The Fifth Circuit ruled<\/a> DHS\u2019s use of a filter team to sort out any privileged materials was sufficient to protect Malik\u2019s clients, and that the government\u2019s asserted connection between the attorney and an arms dealer created probable cause even if Malik is correct that the connection \u201cappears dubious in hindsight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Immigration Attorney Critical Of ICE Receives Temporary Restraining Order Preventing Search Of His Phone<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week, attorney Andrew Lattarulo<\/a> was on his way home from Aruba when his iPhone 15 Pro Max was seized by Homeland Security and Border Control agents at Boston Logan International Airport. Perhaps un-coincidentally, Lattarulo is a well-known immigration in the Boston area \u2014 his clients include the father of a 4-month old whose arrest by ICE drew public scrutiny<\/a> \u2014 and has a popular social media presence that calls out problematic practices of immigration agents and is critical of Donald Trump\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

As a result, he filed a lawsuit<\/a> alleging violations of his First and Fourth Amendment rights. Lattarulo also filed an emergency motion <\/a>seeking a temporary restraining order blocking the search of his phone and its return, as it contains confidential client information, as well as privileged information between himself and other attorneys. As stated in the motion, \u201cThe seizure was made eight hours after plaintiff had been inspected by United States Customs and Border Protection at a border crossing. Plaintiff\u2019s phone was unlawfully seized and most likely searched in violation of plaintiff\u2019s First and Fourth Amendments, and the constitutional rights of his clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

District of Massachusetts Judge Allison D. Burroughs\u00a0granted the TRO<\/a>, barring the government from searching the phone or analyzing any data that may have already been collected.<\/p>\n

Lattarulo\u2019s attorneys, Mary Lemay and Patrick Hanley from Butters Brazilian, said<\/a>, \u201cWe believe attorney Lattarulo was targeted because he represents clients in immigration-related proceedings, and he has amplified the government\u2019s own enforcement priorities via social media to immigrant communities and anyone else who might be interested.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cPublic criticism of our government is protected speech under the First Amendment. We initiated this suit to protect not only attorney Lattarulo\u2019s constitutional rights, but also those of his clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this early success may not translate to ultimate victory. In 2021, Texas immigration attorney Adam A. Malik had his phone seized<\/a> by border agents. The Fifth Circuit ruled<\/a> DHS\u2019s use of a filter team to sort out any privileged materials was sufficient to protect Malik\u2019s clients, and that the government\u2019s asserted connection between the attorney and an arms dealer created probable cause even if Malik is correct that the connection \u201cappears dubious in hindsight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Immigration Attorney Critical Of ICE Receives Temporary Restraining Order Preventing Search Of His Phone<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, attorney Andrew Lattarulo was on his way home from Aruba when his iPhone 15 Pro Max was seized by Homeland Security and Border Control agents at Boston Logan International Airport. Perhaps un-coincidentally, Lattarulo is a well-known immigration in the Boston area \u2014 his clients include the father of a 4-month old whose arrest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":134692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-sxvjSu.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}