A federal immigration agent added eight Maine residents to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security database in January, including several observers of immigration enforcement activity, according to newly unsealed court records. One woman, Caryln Williams, was held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while returning from a trip to Quebec as a result of being in the Department of Homeland Security’s Investigative Case Management (ICM) system. An agent testified that he added her to it after her car was observed at a location where multiple people were recording federal agents on Jan. 20, according to court records in a lawsuit against DHS. But Williams wasn’t driving her car that morning, her spouse was. Williams was “not physically present, or in any other way present, at the scene of the Jan. 20 encounter with this ICE agent,” Williams’ attorney JoAnna Suriani said on Monday. Williams, her partner Polyxenia Pantos, and two other Maine residents are suing DHS, accusing the agency of violating their First Amendment rights. The federal lawsuit alleges that agents threatened to add observers in Maine to a database for “domestic terrorists.” A motion from the plaintiffs filed last week, citing depositions and other evidence that remains sealed, states that an agent added Williams to the ICM system, an existing database used by DHS to document cases by Homeland Security Investigations. Attorneys for DHS stated in a motion to dismiss the case that the agent — an HSI Boston officer, identified as “J.C.” — added eight people to ICM who “he believed posted potential threats to law enforcement.” The plaintiffs say in their filings that six of those people were observers. DHS has denied any allegations of wrongdoing, including the existence of a database for domestic terrorists. A spokesperson for DHS did not address questions from a reporter about the case Monday, but maintained the agency does not run a database for domestic terrorists. Attorneys for DHS did not respond to a request for comment. The plaintiffs asked the court in the motion to issue an injunction before trial, barring agents from retaliating against observers with threats of a database and other tactics, like driving by protesters’ homes or calling them. “Once you are in that database, or a database like it … the reach of where that data goes, including who has access to it, and what it can be used for in the future, is, in my opinion, very chilling,” said Suriani, an attorney with the nonprofit Protect Democracy, which is representing the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs are also asking that Williams’ classification in the ICM database be modified, so she can travel internationally without being automatically detained or subject to a second inspection by border officials. Attorneys for DHS have said in hearings and court filings that the government has a policy to protect observers and protesters who engage in First Amendment activity, and that agents receive relevant training. In March, the government also argued that only a few agents in Maine were recorded by observers talking about a database for domestic terrorists, and that those agents violated DHS policy. No agents were disciplined, the plaintiffs argued in court records, citing depositions that remain under seal at the government’s request. Suriani also disagreed with characterizations that the agents were “rogue.” According to a motion filed by Williams’ attorneys, the agent identified as J.C. testified during a deposition that he added Williams to the ICM database as an “aggressive woman (who) interject(ed) herself into an arrest.” The motion alleges that he also called Williams hours after Pantos was seen recording ICE agents, identifying himself only as someone from DHS and encouraging her to tell Pantos “not to do anything like that in the future because people who are doing things like that might get added to a domestic terrorism watchlist.” Documents filed last month by the government identify J.C. as “Mr. Coleman.” Attempts to reach Coleman through social media, email and DHS were unsuccessful. The plaintiffs’ motion also states that agents have continued driving by the homes of people who film and protest them. One agent said in his deposition that this was meant to “show them that we knew who they were” and “have them stop following us,” according to the plaintiffs’ filing. This is the plaintiffs’ second time asking for pretrial relief. U.S. District Judge John Woodcock denied their request for a temporary restraining order against DHS in March, ruling that he didn’t have enough evidence to merit such an emergency measure. In their latest filing, the plaintiffs said most of the agents whom they deposed said they considered the Maine observers to be interfering with immigration arrests. Plaintiffs have denied interfering with arrests. “The government is treating people who exercise their First Amendment rights and seek to hold it accountable as criminal suspects, and that’s what we’re asking the court to stop,” Suriani said. Both sides are still responding to the government’s motion to dismiss, and the plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction. A hearing for either request has not yet been scheduled. The ICM database is hosted by software company Palantir, according to a statement the company released in 2022 and recent reporting by Wired. A spokesperson for Palantir declined to comment Monday.