Immigration raids violate Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights of thousands of people

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LOS ANGELES, July 2, 2025—Public Counsel, in partnership with advocacy groups, residents, and workers across Southern California, filed a lawsuit in federal court last night against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The lawsuit challenges DHS’s unlawful stop-and-arrest practices that have led to the abduction and disappearance of community members and their confinement in illegal conditions while denying them access to attorneys. Public Counsel represents plaintiffs seeking to end these unconstitutional actions that have impacted thousands of residents across Southern California. For more on Vasquez-Perdomo v. Noem, click here.

Since June 6, the federal government has unleashed immigration agents onto the streets, worksites, and neighborhoods of Los Angeles and surrounding counties, creating a siege and immigration dragnet over the region. The suit notes, “one of the clearest patterns that have emerged in the raids in Southern California […] has been stops and interrogations […] on the basis of apparent race and ethnicity.”

“Members of the Southern California community have been whisked away and disappeared into a grossly overcrowded dungeon-like facility lacking food, medical care, basic hygiene, and beds,” said Mark Rosenbaum, senior special counsel for strategic litigation at Public Counsel, representing the plaintiffs. “The objective of this draconian crackdown is to eviscerate basic rights to due process and to shield from public view the horrifying ways ICE and Border Patrol agents treat citizens and residents who have been stigmatized by our government as violent criminals based on skin color alone. This lawsuit is in part about putting an end to that big lie.”

The suit brought by five individual workers as well as three membership organizations and a legal services provider—The Los Angeles Worker Center Network, United Farm Workers (UFW), the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), and Immigrant Defenders Law Center—alleges that DHS has unconstitutionally arrested and detained people in order to meet arbitrary arrest quotas set by the Trump administration. 

The plaintiffs seek to represent two classes of individuals: people who have been or will be subjected to unlawful practices of 1) suspicionless stops and 2) warrantless arrests without evaluations of flight risk. Plaintiffs are requesting the court certify the case as a class action and issue preliminary and permanent injunctions stopping further violations of Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.

“These raids have targeted the most vulnerable members of our workforce, essential workers who are the backbone of our local economy,” said Armando Gudino, executive director of the Los Angeles Worker Center Network. “We cannot allow racial profiling, warrantless arrests, and denial of due process to become the standard operating procedure in our communities.”

Agents have been abducting individuals en masse and taking them to the basement of a federal building in downtown L.A. commonly referred to as “B-18,” which lacks beds, showers, or medical facilities. The facility was designed to hold a small number of people temporarily so they can be processed and released, or processed and transported to a long-term detention facility. 

“We have heard from over 100 families of Individuals taken to B-18 and other detention centers that attest to their loved ones being kept in overcrowded, cold, and inhumane conditions. They are held in small windowless rooms with dozens or more other detainees, in extremely cramped quarters while being verbally humiliated and pressured into signing papers they don’t understand,” said Angelica Salas, executive director at CHIRLA. “Angelenos held in those conditions are routinely deprived of food, water, clean clothing, baths, and access to information and counsel which can have dire consequences on their chances to get reunited with their families.”

The ongoing raids have led to the disappearance of more than 1,500 people. The suit details how federal agents consistently refuse to identify themselves or what agency they are with when asked, using anonymity as a tactic to shield lawlessness.

“Since June 6th, marauding, masked goons have descended upon Los Angeles, terrorizing our brown communities and tearing up the Constitution in the process,” said Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, representing the plaintiffs. “No matter their status or the color of their skin, everyone is guaranteed Constitutional rights to protect them from illegal stops. We will hold DHS accountable.”

“The raids in Southern California have been both urban and rural. We’ve seen Border Patrol agents chasing down farm workers in the fields of Ventura County. The spouse of a UFW member was among those unjustly targeted”, said UFW President Teresa Romero. “Now the workers who feed America go to work in fear. Their children are terrified, wondering if their parents will come home. Farm workers deserve better — we’ve seen these unconstitutional and unamerican tactics before, with Border Patrol targeting random farm workers and anyone with brown skin in Kern County during their large sweep in January. We sued then and we are suing now.”

The plaintiffs are represented by Public Counsel, Hecker Fink LLP, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin, UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant and Racial Justice Solidarity Clinic, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, ACLU Foundations of Northern California and San Diego & Imperial Counties, Martinez Aguilasocho Law, Inc., Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), and Immigrant Defenders Law Center. 

“The federal government is waging a campaign of terror across Southern California, abducting community members off the streets and warehousing them in deplorable conditions away from their loved ones, all while denying them access to legal counsel,” said Alvaro M. Huerta, director of litigation & advocacy at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. “It’s blatantly unconstitutional, cruelly inhumane, and a violation of any common decency. If the Trump administration insists on trampling Angelenos’ rights, we’ll see them in court.”

• Read the complaint here
• For more on Vasquez-Perdomo v. Noem, click here.

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Latest Updates:

• 18 States Support Our Case: On July 7, California Attorney General Rob Bonta led 18 states in filing an amicus brief supporting our lawsuit, highlighting its national importance. (Read the proposed amicus brief here)
• Local Cities Join Lawsuit: On July 8, the City and County of Los Angeles, along with seven additional Southern California cities, moved to join our lawsuit. (Read more)
• Emergency Court Hearing: Public Counsel appeared in federal court on July 10, seeking Temporary Restraining Orders to immediately halt the unlawful immigration raids and restore access to legal counsel. Judge Frimpong indicated decisions will be issued shortly. (Read coverage of the hearing in the LA Times)