Staff file photo Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins

Lawyers with LatinoJustice PRLDEF, CASA de Maryland and Nixon Peabody LLP will file the suit in the U.S. District Court at Greenbelt on Tuesday, according a lawyer with LatinoJustice, Jose Perez.

Jenkins said he became aware of the lawsuit Monday. He said he’s looking into the circumstances of the encounter and the arrest, but had no comment yet.

The complaint will allege that Roxana Orellana was eating lunch outdoors Oct. 7, 2008, on her break when two Frederick County Sheriff's Office deputies approached and began interrogating her about her immigration status, according to a CASA press release.

Perez said lawyers believe the arresting officer was not one of those who had received immigration enforcement training as part of a program to train deputies and correctional officers to enforce federal immigration laws.

That program, known as a 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, became effective in Frederick County in April of 2008. To date, it's the only such agreement with a county law enforcement agency of its kind in Maryland.

Perez said Orellana's only apparent crime was eating a sandwich while looking Latina. He said she was not charged with a crime but was taken into immigration custody and jailed in Frederick for a day or so until she was transferred to other immigration jails in Maryland.

"The only reasonable conclusion anyone can draw is that they were profiling," Perez said.

In all, Orellana spent 46 days in immigration detention until she was released, Perez said. She now lives at an undisclosed location in the country, he said.

The lawsuit will claim Jenkins exceeded the jurisdiction's agreement with ICE under the 287(g) agreement, that the deputies actions were discriminatory and violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and that deputies violated Orellana's rights to be free from discrimination and unreasonable search and seizure, the press release states.