CHAPARRAL, N.M. -- Some Chaparral residents claimed their civil rights were violated when Otero County sheriff's deputies arrived at their homes.

But residents said they fought back with a lawsuit.

Five families teamed up with the New Mexico American Civil Liberties Union to file a federal lawsuit against the Otero County Sheriff's Department.

Tuesday that lawsuit was settled.

The five families said their civil rights were violated when deputies would raid homes without search warrants.

"I heard rumors about that. They would go knock on people's doors saying that there was pizza, or they had won a prize," said Virginia Lima of Chaparral.

Several residents feared opening their doors. They told the ACLU they were afraid they'd be targeted, for not having the paperwork to legally live in the country.

”The community was at some level terrorized by what had been going on. People being roused from their homes in the early dawn hours with officers banging on their houses,” said Peter Simonson, executive director of the New Mexico ACLU.

The lawsuit provided the families with a monetary settlement and a some would say peace of mind.

“What more important is a policy that we worked on with the Sheriff's Department to clearly delineate where officers can and can not inquire into immigration status,” said Simonson.

Otero County Sheriff John Blansett said, “We had a successful conclusion to the current litigation that we had mediated last week."

Blansett said there is pending litigation in the matter, keeping him from commenting further.