Advancing Immigrants' Rights

The ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties works to support immigrants’ rights and build power to fight against the detention and deportation machine through policy advocacy, impact litigation, community power-building and strategic communications.

We advocate for investments in programs and policies that ensure due process for all people, including those detained at the ICE detention facilities in our region.

Our work invests in and builds long-term and sustainable infrastructure that makes the border region a welcoming place for all people, including people seeking asylum, immigrants and all newcomers.

Immigrants' Rights Resources 2025

BUILDING LOCAL FIREWALLS TO DEFEND AGAINST FEDERAL ABUSE OF POWER

The federal attack on immigrants and people seeking asylum is part of a broader effort to erode civil liberties and democratic safeguards that ultimately impacts all communities. We must protect immigrants and their families against unjust, inhumane, anti-immigration policies and practices.

Our local, state and federal representatives can build firewalls for freedom that would protect civil liberties and rights from attacks and proactively advance local and state policies that protect people’s safety, health and fundamental rights. The ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties joins forces with other local organizations, community members and elected officials to advocate for stronger policies to protect our region and our rights. Learn more about model due process ordinances that can help keep our communities safe from federal overreach by reading our factsheet.

FIGHTING AGAINST THE DETENTION AND DEPORTATION MACHINE

Immigrants and children of immigrants represent approximately one-third of our region's population — meaning the current federal assault on immigrant communities impacts every corner and sector of San Diego and Imperial counties.

Unlike the high-profile ICE surges that drew national attention in Minneapolis and Chicago, enforcement in San Diego has been quieter — but no less devastating. Between May and October of 2025, arrests for civil immigration violations increased by 1,500 percent compared to the same period the year prior.

The human consequences are severe and compounding. Families are forgoing health care, pulling children from schools and avoiding legal aid out of fear. When large segments of our region live in fear, our schools, hospitals, local economies and democratic institutions all suffer.

The ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties is involved in several lawsuits against the federal government for their unlawful immigration enforcement activity. You can read more about our cases on our website, including Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem and United Farm Workers, et al. v. Noem, et al.

FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ABUSE HOTLINE

In response to a surge of civil rights violations occurring nationwide, the ACLU-SDIC is tracking and investigating unlawful conduct by federal immigration agents both against people lawfully exercising First Amendment rights and against people otherwise detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Border Patrol and other federal law enforcement agencies. To aid these efforts, the ACLU-SDIC launched two regional hotlines for the public to report harassment, use of force, racial profiling, warrantless stops and detention from ICE or federal agents.

Call the ACLU-SDIC Federal Law Enforcement Abuse Reporting Hotline to report unlawful contact:

  • San Diego County hotline: 619-467-1663
  • Imperial County hotline: 760-645-9335

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS & IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS RESOURCE HUB

The ACLU-SDIC shares Know Your Rights (KYR) information for impacted communities and works with our network of community partners to provide referrals and support the robust local infrastructure in both San Diego and Imperial counties. If you would like to request a KYR presentation, please complete the ACLU-SDIC Presenter Request Form.

The ACLUF-SDIC Immigrants’ Rights Resource Hub provides Know Your Rights information including pro-bono resources, printable resources, videos and guidance for sensitive locations during immigration enforcement activities. We encourage our supporters to share printable Know Your Resources with local businesses and community members to ensure all people in San Diego and Imperial counties know their rights.

The Latest

Resource
Placeholder image

Immigrants' Rights Resource HUB

Regardless of your immigration status, you have guaranteed rights under the Constitution. Learn more here about your rights as an immigrant, and how to express them.
Know Your Rights
Immigrants' Rights 25

Know Your Rights | Immigrants' Rights

Know Your Rights
customs ICE

I've Been Stopped By Police or ICE

Resource
Placeholder image

Immigrants’ Rights and Detention

Cases, Campaigns & Legislation

Court Case
Jul 2, 2025

Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem

"All that matters is numbers, pure numbers. Quantity over quality.” These are the words of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) insider describing the White House’s newly-imposed quota: 3,000 immigration arrests nationwide per day, legal constraints and public outcry be damned. Since June 6, 2025, the federal government has unleashed immigration agents onto the streets, worksites, and neighborhoods of Los Angeles and surrounding counties, creating a several weeks-long immigration dragnet that shows no signs of ceasing. U.S. Border Patrol agents have relied on perceived race or ethnicity to select who to stop, conducted suspicionless stops, executed warrantless home raids and carried out illegal worksite operations. Courts have repeatedly intervened to curb these practices. These illegal practices violate the Fourth Amendment. On July 2, five individuals who were stopped or arrested during the raids along with three membership organizations (Los Angeles Worker Center Network, United Farm Workers, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights) and a legal services provider (Immigrant Defenders Law Center) filed a class action lawsuit calling to end unlawful stops and arrests, and for the protection of their due process and access to counsel rights for people in immigration detention. The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin, UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant and Racial Justice Solidarity Clinic, Public Counsel, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, ACLU Foundations of Northern California and San Diego & Imperial Counties, Hecker Fink LLP, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), Immigrant Defenders Law Center, and Martinez Aguilasocho Law Inc.
Court Case
Feb 26, 2025

United Farm Workers, et al. v. Noem, et al.

The ACLUs of California and Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP sued the Dept. of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Border Patrol for violating the U.S. Constitution and federal law by indiscriminately stopping, detaining, and arresting people of color regardless of their actual immigration status or individual circumstances. On February 26, 2025, the ACLU Foundations of Northern California, Southern California, and San Diego & Imperial Counties, and Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Border Patrol to prohibit the government from stopping, arresting, and summarily expelling community members from the country using practices that violate the U.S. Constitution and federal law. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the United Farm Workers and five Kern County residents. Border Patrol violated the plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, their Fifth Amendment right to due process, and other federal laws. In January 2025, Border Patrol agents based at the U.S.-Mexico border ventured more than 300 miles inland to Bakersfield to launch “Operation Return to Sender,” a weeklong operation in predominantly Latino areas of Kern County and the surrounding area. The operation appears to have been designed to stop, detain, and arrest people of color who agents assumed were farmworkers or day laborers, regardless of their actual immigration status or individual circumstances, transport them back to the El Centro Border Patrol Station, and coerce them into “voluntary departure,” a form of summary expulsion which can result in a bar on reentry to the U.S. for up to 10 years. This was a fishing expedition, not a targeted operation. By casting a wide net, Border Patrol unlawfully detained dozens of people who agents had no reason to suspect were in the country without proper documentation. Plaintiffs seek to represent three classes of individuals who have been or will be subjected to the three unlawful practices the lawsuit challenges: 1) stops regardless of reasonable suspicion of unlawful presence; 2) arrests without regard to probable cause of flight risk; and 3) voluntary departure without a knowing and voluntary waiver of rights. Learn more: Border Patrol sued for tactics used in Kern County immigration raid ACLU sues over Border Patrol raid that rattled California farmworkers Judge orders Border Patrol to halt warrantless sweeps in CA
Court Case
Feb 26, 2018

Ms. L v. ICE

Fearing death in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ms. L. escaped with her seven-year-old daughter, eventually arriving at the San Ysidro port of entry in November 2017 to request asylum...
Court Case
Mar 14, 2024

Cancino Castellar v. Mayorkas

The Right of Prompt Presentment for People in Immigration Custody