Immigrants' Rights

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.

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...

The Right of Prompt Presentment for People in Immigration Custody

"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.

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