The city of Whitefish signed a $90,000 settlement in a racial profiling lawsuit tied to the April 2025 detainment of Venezuelan national and Kalispell resident Beker Rengifo del Castillo.

Former Whitefish Police officer Michael Hingiss called a dispatch center for federal immigration officials after pulling Rengifo del Castillo over for a broken taillight on April 24, 2025. Hingiss told the person on the line that he was “out with a male that only speaks Spanish, wondering if you want to check him.”  

Whitefish-based U.S. Border Patrol agents subsequently detained Rengifo del Castillo. He was held for a week in a federal immigration facility in Washington before being released without charge.  

Rengifo del Castillo filed a federal lawsuit in August 2025, accusing Hingiss of unconstitutional seizure, false arrest and equal protection violations. The suit claimed Hingiss contacted federal immigration officials due to Rengifo del Castillo’s ethnicity and the language he spoke.  

Rengifo del Castillo supplied Hingiss with a REAL ID compliant driver’s license, proof of car insurance and the vehicle’s registration at the onset of the traffic stop. Hingiss did not return the driver’s license to Rengifo del Castillo, essentially detaining him until Border Patrol agents arrived, the complaint alleged. 

Rengifo del Castillo moved to the Flathead Valley in July 2024 under a two-year humanitarian parole program. While the Trump administration has repeatedly targeted the program for elimination, a federal court order blocked the termination of parolee’s legal status when Rengifo del Castillo was detained in late April.       

The suit also included five separate counts against the city of Whitefish, including one count of unconstitutional seizure, one count of false arrest, one count of negligence and two counts of failure to train, because Hingiss was acting as a city employee at the time of the traffic stop. Whitefish Police Chief Bridger Kelch is named in one count of failure to train.   

All counts were dismissed on Tuesday, after the city of Whitefish agreed to the $90,000 settlement, according to city officials and Upper Seven Law, the nonprofit law firm that represented Rengifo del Castillo. The counts were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled at a later date. 

The sum will be paid by the city of Whitefish’s insurance provider, Montana Municipal Interlocal Authority, and is much lower than the expected costs from ongoing litigation, said City Manager Dana Meeker. 

“This should send a clear message to law enforcement agencies across Montana that untrained local police officers should not play border cop,” said Andres Haladay, senior staff attorney for Upper Seven Law, in a statement. “When police conduct immigration investigations based on the color of someone’s skin or the language they speak, it violates the constitution, breaches community trust and wastes taxpayer dollars.” 

Reporter Hailey Smalley can be reached at 406-758-4433 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.