Court Cases

Nine people detained at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, Calif., and the Golden State Annex in McFarland, Calif., filed a class action lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and GEO Group, the for-profit prison company that owns and operates the detention centers. They alleged that they and other detained people faced retaliation, including threats of solitary confinement and bans on family visitation, for engaging in a collective hunger strike to demand their release from immigration custody and the shutdown of both facilities.

California activists are suing the Marin County Sheriff for illegally sharing drivers’ license plate data with ICE, CBP and other out-of-state agencies.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus filed a class-action lawsuit demanding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stop its illegal practice of using third-party contractor G4S Secure Solutions to arrest people at jails and prisons to transfer them to ICE for deportation.

The ACLU of Northern California, the Immigrant Defense Project, Just Futures Law, and Mijente sued the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection under the Freedom of Information Act seeking records of their use of Clearview AI’s face surveillance system.

Advocates filed damages claims against Governor Newsom and California prison officials on behalf of four people who were transferred to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), instead of being released back to their loved ones and allowed to reenter society after serving their time.

The ACLU Foundations of California and legal partners filed a federal class action lawsuit seeking the immediate release of detainees at Yuba County Jail and Mesa Verde Detention Facility. The overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at the ICE jails endanger our plaintiffs' lives in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic.

The ACLU filed a complaint against Madera County for falsely re-imprisoning a man and transferring him into ICE custody.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and Goodwin Procter LLP today filed a lawsuit against ICE contractor G4S Secure Solutions, for its inhumane treatment of four detainees who were shackled for hours in a hot windowless van during transport.

Approximately 34,000 immigrants are held in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s (ICE) facilities on a daily basis, with roughly 500 to 600 of these immigrants held in northern California detention facilities. These detainees are not serving criminal sentences.