MIAMI — U.S. immigration officials illegally withheld more than $300 million in bond payments from tens of thousands of low-income immigrant families and U.S. citizens, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept the money so long that $240 million was transferred to a U.S. Treasury account for unclaimed funds, said Motley Rice LLC, one of the firms that filed the lawsuit in federal court for the District of Columbia. East of New York.

The lawsuit, which addresses long-running complaints, seeks class-action status for those who paid cash to rescue family members detained by ICE. Motley Rice, a firm that represents clients in a wide variety of class action lawsuits, said it has been investigating the issue for two years.

Immigration bonds are set by ICE and immigration judges and allow non-citizens facing removal proceedings to be released to the US while their cases are resolved in court. The average bail payment is $6,000 according to the lawsuit.

Based on information obtained through public records requests and other cases, there are tens of thousands of class members, the suit claims. “The precise number and identification of class members will be verified from government records,” it said.

After the immigration case is over, family and friends of those detained have the right to get their money back. ICE, however, “regularly fails to return these funds, even when all conditions have been met and proceedings have concluded,” according to the suit.

ICE declined to comment, saying it does not discuss pending litigation.

The case filed this week is on behalf of Douglas Cortez of Uniondale, New York, who posted $10,000 bond to get his friend out of custody. In August 2023, his friend’s proceedings were dismissed, but more than a year later, Cortez has yet to receive any notice or a refund for the cash deposit he made.

“They took thousands of dollars from working immigrant families who deserve their money back,” said Deepak Gupta, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit. “We want ICE to fix this system, we want the court to declare that ICE is in violation of its legal obligations under the contract so this doesn’t happen to other families in the future.”

Gupta said they arrived at the $300 million figure after scrutinizing government documents they obtained through FOIA requests and court records.

Ada Salazar, 28, didn’t get her money after her uncle posted $5,000 in February 2016. She’s from El Salvador, was granted legal status in 2021, and is now ready to join the process.

“I hope to get my money back, that’s the promise they made,” Salazar, a mother of a 6-year-old and owner of a food truck in North Carolina, told The Associated Press.