When American Civil Liberties Union attorneys began preparing a lawsuit in early 2013 to protect undocumented immigrants from being forced to sign voluntary departure papers by immigration officials, local immigration attorneys remarked that the idea was “crazy and unrealistic.”

A year later, the ACLU won its victory in a class-action lawsuit, Lopez-Vanegas v. Johnson. It alleged that Border Patrol and Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials employed lies, deceptive and coercive practices to deport scores of immigrants who would have had strong claims to remain in the United States had they appeared before immigration judges.

The ACLU attorneys, staff members and supporters celebrated their victory Oct. 25 with food, entertainment and an award presentation at San Diego’s Centro Cultural de la Raza.

The lawsuit maintains that in order to convince immigrants to sign their own explusion papers, agents and officers “have intimidated and physically abused the plaintiffs, threatened to retaliate against their families, held them incommunicado, and presented them with false information.”

Said attorney Anthony Stigler of Cooley, LLP, a partner in the lawsuit, “We expect that this lawsuit will lead to the cessation of these forced ‘voluntary departures’ and the reunification of the aggrieved individuals with their families.”

Three of the nine plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Isadora Lopez-Vanegas, Samuel Nava, and Ana Maria Duenas.

Ms. Lopez-Vanegas and her autistic son were arrested by Border Patrol agents in 2011. The agents threatened that if she didn’t sign voluntary departure, she would be detained for several months and be separated from her son.

Under this pressure she signed the “voluntary departure” form and she and her U.S. citizen son were expelled to Mexico.

Samuel Nava is the husband of a U.S. citizen wife. He was arrested at traffic stop and taken to a Border Patrol station. Nava, too, was told that if he refused to sign he would be detained for months. The agents also misinformed him that he could obtain legal status through his fiancée, once in Mexico.

The agents also made threats against Nava’s family. Under this pressure he signed “voluntary departure” and was expelled from the U.S. His fiancée was forced to leave and join Mr. Nava in Mexico, where they were married and have been living.

Ana Maria Dueñas is the mother and grandmother of U.S. citizens. She was detained by Border Patrol agents while she was waiting for a bus in El Cajon. They told her she could not get relief from an immigration judge but that she could get legal status once in Mexico through her U.S. citizen children.

Dueñas, like other immigrants, was told that if she refused to sign the form, she would be detained for two months—without informing her that she could be released on her own recognizance if she chose not to agree to “voluntary departure.” She signed the form and was expelled to Tijuana.

At the Centro event, ACLU staff members and supporters presented an award to attorney Sean Riordan who led the litigation team, winning the historic settlement with the Border Patrol and I.C.E.

“This is a substantial reform of how the Border Patrol and ICE do business,” said Riordan. “If they implement the agreement fully, never again should families be driven out by immigration enforcement practices that rely on misinformation, deception and coercion.”

The lawsuit argued that the coercive tactics used against the immigrants, including threats, verbal and physical abuse “resulted in the involuntary waiver of core due process rights. By signing voluntary departure, an individual is usually deported within hours and is denied re-entry to the U.S. for 10 years.”

The lawsuit was also filed on behalf of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, (CHIRLA), the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center and the San Bernardino Community Service Center.

Gabriela Rivera, an ACLU attorney who worked on the lawsuit, told the audience at El Centro Cultural that the case would not have gone forward were it not for the efforts of immigration partners and advocates who located the plaintiffs and brought them into the lawsuit.

“We learned a lot from these activists and we also learned a lot from the plaintiffs,” said Rivera. They stuck with us, despite separation from their family members and the suffering they underwent.”

Norma Chavez Peterson, executive director of the San Diego ACLU, singled out some of the plaintiffs present at the Centro event. “It took a long time to get the plaintiffs we needed for this case. But we thank you for staying with us. You and your families are not only a great example to us, but you are an integral part of this whole process so that other families will not go through what you have endured.”

Details of the class action settlement are still being worked out. A hearing on final approval of the settlement is set for Feb. 9, 2015.