Detroit Police car (Photo by Jon King)

Detroit police Sgt. Denise Wallet, a 27-year Detroit police veteran, has filed a suit against the city of Detroit, arguing that the decision to suspend her without pay after she contacted U.S. Border Patrol agents during an arrest was a violation of her due process rights.

Wallet is one of two Detroit Police Department officers currently suspended without pay for allegedly coordinating with federal Border Patrol agents against department policy. Chief of Police Todd A. Bettison had initially signaled his intention to fire both officers, but changed his tune on Friday, saying that he was satisfied with their suspensions.

Wallet says that, upon arresting an individual on Feb. 9, she could not identify that individual after she was given a photo of a fraudulent ID and the DPD-provided fingerprint scanner could not identify the person. At that point, she contacted Border Patrol for assistance identifying the person, and she did not have any knowledge of his immigration status.

According to the complaint, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan on Thursday, Wallet “contacted U.S. Border Patrol solely for the purpose of identifying the individual who was in custody, not to enforce immigration law or to inquire into the subject’s immigration status,” and only did so after her lieutenant instructed her to do so.

Currently, Detroit Police Department’s policy is that the department does not enforce federal immigration laws and prohibits officers from contacting Border Patrol for translation services during stops.

At some point during the traffic stop in question, the complaint notes that Wallet “made a verbal comment expressing her disagreement with the DPD policy regarding immigration and collaboration with the federal government.”

Wallet was suspended by Bettison without pay on Feb. 10 — “most likely based on misinformation that he received from his subordinates,” the complaint says. Because she contacted Border Patrol for assistance identifying the individual, not for translation services, Wallet says that her conduct did not violate any existing DPD policy.

In her lawsuit, Wallet is seeking a Temporary Restraining Order to reinstate her with pay, as well as to prevent the city from suspending her without pay or terminating her employment for her conduct in this specific case. She is also seeking compensation for “lost overtime compensation, lost wages, emotional distress, and reputational harm.”

Wallet also argues that suspension without pay is too harsh a punishment for her actions, with the complaint continuing, “Any claim that contacting Border Patrol, as ordered to by her lieutenant, and in a manner that clearly and obviously does not even violate any DPD policy, in no universe reaches such a high level.”

She argues that her due process rights have been violated because she was suspended without a hearing or any opportunity to respond, and further argues that the DPD policy in question violates U.S. federal law that states that “no state or local government entity or official may prohibit or restrict any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, federal immigration authorities information regarding the citizenship or immigration status of any individual.”