Federal Court Blocks Unlawful Suspicionless, Racially Discriminatory Immigration Stops in Southern California

LOS ANGELES – A federal court granted a preliminary injunction in Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin that blocks the Trump administration from continuing its unlawful practice of conducting suspicionless and racially discriminatory immigration stops in Southern California. The court also partly certified a class of individuals who have been affected by this practice.

Following the evidence presented in the case, the court’s order prohibits defendants from enforcing their policy and practice of conducting detentive stops in the Central District of California based on racial stereotyping except when such a stop is conducted at a port of entry, checkpoint, or other functional equivalent of the border.

The order applies to the Central District of California, which includes the seven counties of Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

Further, the order specifies that “In developing reasonable suspicion, an immigration agent or officer must consider the totality of circumstances and may not rely solely on apparent status as low-income or working-class and Latino, even when an identified target is allegedly low-income or working-class and Latino.”

“This order recognizes that the armed goons who targeted and abducted Latino community members in Southern California were in fact simply racially profiling as many people as they could get handcuffs on, a practice that violates multiple provisions of the U.S. Constitution,” said Mohammad Tajsar, director of immigrants’ rights at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. “Having spent more than a year amassing reams of evidence of widespread illegal behavior, we will now closely monitor compliance with this court order to make sure we end this project of racist immigration enforcement once and for all.”

“For over a year, agents have been showing up at car washes and taking people without a warrant, never asking whether they have a family and a home to return to,” said Flor Melendrez, executive director of CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, a member of the Los Angeles Worker Center Network, a plaintiff in the case. “The law requires more than a biased guess about someone’s status, and today the court made the government follow it. Our community fought for this protection, and we will hold the government to it on every street and at every car wash.”

“The Court’s order confirms what Angelenos know all too well: DHS is racially profiling working-class Latino communities, and it must stop. Since June 2025, DHS has roamed the streets of Los Angeles, detaining day laborers, car wash workers, street vendors, and farmworkers based on race, not reasonable suspicion” said Lauren Michel Wilfong, staff attorney at National Day Laborer Organizing Network and co-counsel for stop/arrest plaintiffs. “The Court’s order makes clear that Latino workers have the right to go about their lives without being detained because of the color of their skin. This win was made possible by the Plaintiffs and dozens of class members who spoke truth to power to expose DHS’s unlawful actions and safeguard our fundamental rights.”

“The court read and heard the testimony of a community under siege by unconstitutional operations by its own federal government. The injunction powerfully states that these must stop immediately. The brave plaintiffs in this case, including Mr. Vasquez Perdomo, have highlighted how this lawless Administration is insatiable in its assault on our Constitution, engaging in denial of due process, conducting warrantless arrests and rooting all this in racial profiling. We will make sure this injunction is followed to the T,” said Carl Bergquist, general counsel at Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), a plaintiff in the case.

“As farm workers across the state continue to be terrorized by an ICE surge targeting rural communities in particular, working class Latino communities are relying on the courts to defend our rights,” said Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, a plaintiff in the case. “The court’s order today will strengthen protections for farm workers in the Central District of California, from the strawberry fields of Ventura to the date plantations of Coachella. Farm workers across the nation deserve the same protections, and farm workers in the Central District of California must have these protections continuously enforced and defended against both lawless government thugs in the streets and twisted government lawyers in the courts. Every working person deserves to get to work and feed their families free from government terror.”

“The government was shown, through a large body of evidence, to be stopping people based on race. Their witnesses expressly admitted this. That is antithetical to the promise of equal protection in our Constitution. In such circumstances, it is incumbent upon all of us to stand up and say no more.” said Annie Lai, director of the UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant and Racial Justice Solidarity Clinic. “We will continue to fight and ensure Plaintiffs’ voices and that of members of the class are heard.”

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, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), 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.

Read the order: https://www.aclusocal.org/app/uploads/2026/10/ECF-823-Order-Granting-Suspicionless-Stops-PI.pdf