Report, Two Years in the Making, Spotlights Banishment of Unhoused People to the Desert

LANCASTER — In the City of Lancaster, people who are homeless are treated as criminals and subjected to citations that carry fines far beyond their means to pay. They can appeal, but in a Kafka-like situation, the city demands that a fine be fully paid before an appeal can be heard.

Today, new enforcement priorities under the Biden administration – set out in a memo issued by Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske on January 20 — go into effect, marking a sharp reversal of a 2017 Trump directive under which virtually any undocumented immigrant was an ICE

LOS ANGELES — Today, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the state was launching a civil rights investigation into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, among other groups, urged in a letter in October that an investi

BAKERSFIELD — In a key victory for immigrants’ rights and free speech, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today overruled a lower court ruling that rejected the lawsuit of  Jose Bello, a college student and activist who was arrested and jailed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforce

SANTA ANA — Today the Orange County Board of Supervisors agreed to key changes in its public comment rules that a lawsuit charged had stifled dissent at Board meetings. 

BAKERSFIELD — The Kern County Superior Court has agreed, in the settlement of a lawsuit, to provide in-person access to court proceedings that had been cut off during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also agreed to provide remote audio access to proceedings.

LOS ANGELES — Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California unveils a massive mural that in the tradition of public artworks depicts major figures in the fight for civil liberties and civil rights in Southern California.