Family Sues ICE, Charging It Falsely Claimed Father Threatened Trump

(Left to right) Cain Oulahan, Antonio Morales, Ana Morales and Christine Neuman Ortiz. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The family of a man falsely and publicly accused by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of threatening the president’s life is preparing to sue the federal government for intentionally lying about their father, creating a climate of fear and setting off a wave of harassment.

On May 22, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Ramon Morales Reyes, 55, a Mexican immigrant living in Milwaukee. The agency made the arrest after receiving a handwritten note, ostensibly signed by Morales Reyes, threatening to shoot the president.

DHS posted his mugshot online alongside a message from then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem proclaiming, “Thanks to our ICE officers, this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars.”

It turned out Morales Reyes was framed. He did not write the note. Shortly after Morales Reyes was arrested, investigators learned he neither read nor spoke English.

Once it became clear he likely did not write the note, they asked him who might be trying to hurt him. He could only think of one person, a man named Demetric Scott, who was then being held in Milwaukee County Jail, facing charges for stabbing and robbing Morales Reyes. As recorded jail phone calls later revealed, Scott wrote the threatening letter so Morales Reyes would be deported and his case might be dismissed. Scott has since confessed to framing Morales Reyes. DHS maintains the webpage accusing Morales Reyes of the crime.

When DHS announced they had caught a would-be assassin, law enforcement officials already knew he didn’t write the note, according to lawyers for the Morales family. DHS has still not taken down the public webpage claiming he threatened to assassinate the president. There is only a brief disclaimer explaining that he is no longer under investigation for threats against the president.

His daughter Ana Morales said the whole affair has been “heartbreaking” for her family. Her father can no longer live his life in peace. Anxious and depressed, he is afraid to leave the house, having been cast as a presidential assassin, she said during a press conference organized by the immigrant advocacy organization Voces de la Frontera.

“They knew it was a lie when they said it,” said Attorney Mark Thomsen, who is representing the family in their claim against the federal government. “So we have to ask ourselves, what are we doing that allows this lie to continue? Check it out, folks. These are two young people with the courage to stand up to the biggest government on the planet, the most powerful government on the planet, and say, ‘Do the right thing, America.'”

The Morales family is preparing a lawsuit against DHS and ICE for intentional infliction of emotional distress. They have filed a claim seeking damages. The federal government has six months to respond before they file the suit, Thomsen said. The federal government’s false claims about Morales Reyes kicked off a torrent of harassment against the family, much of it on social media.

“I really think that they knew what they were doing,” his son Antonio Morales said. “They wanted to do this to us. They wanted to do this to more immigrants, and they really want to keep terrorizing the community going forward.”

Morales Reyes has lived in the U.S. since 1986. He was working as a dishwasher at a Chili’s at the time of his arrest and had an open application for a U visa, which is a special visa for immigrants who have been a victim of a crime in the U.S. Since his arrest, the federal government has initiated removal proceedings against him. His immigration attorney, Cain Oulahan, said immigration courts have a massive backlog of U visa cases and it’s unlikely a decision would come before a court decides his deportation case.

“It will probably take around eight years to get a decision on [the U visa],” Oulahan said.

In the meantime, his family is seeking a total of $5.5 million in damages — $1.5 million for Morales Reyes and another $1 million for each of his four family members — for intentional infliction of emotional distress by the federal government.

“We’re asking for the federal government to do the right thing. That’s what we’re asking for,” Thomsen said. “They wanted to crush Ramon and his family as human beings.”

In the claim, filed Aug. 28, attorneys note that President Donald Trump sought damages of $230 million over the federal investigations into him. “It seems only fair that Mr. Morales Reyes and his family should be entitled to $5.5 million total based on DHS altering the course of their lives forever by proliferating the lie of a man who had previously stabbed Mr. Morales Reyes,” Thomsen and Oulahan wrote in the claim.

Emilio De Torre, executive director of the Milwaukee Turners, said the Morales Reyes case represented a clarion call for the community to do what they can to protect democracy and a free society. Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces, said DHS has been conducting a campaign of systematic abuse against immigrants and U.S. citizens across the country, violating constitutional rights, using excessive force and killing.

“We need meaningful accountability in our court system to protect ourselves from the abuses by DHS,” Neumann-Ortiz said. “If we do not force the government to respect our fundamental human rights and our constitutional rights, then anyone and everyone is at risk because of encroaching authoritarianism that is trying to consolidate its power over people and our legal system.”

After all the fear and harassment, and with a difficult legal battle still ahead of them, the Morales children are clinging to the hope they can some day return to a life something like it once was.

“We just want to go back to normal with our dad, to be honest,” Antonio said. “Just being with him, not having to worry about people recognizing us, which is going to be impossible now, I guess.”