Immigrants' Rights

California is home to more immigrants than any other state in the country. The ACLU of Northern California works to defend immigrants’ constitutional rights, end immigration detention, and stop state and local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Outline of the State of California overlaid with pictures of activists holding signs saying "Keep families together" and "Keep communities whole" and a plane flying over barbed wire
Photo of ICE and Police at the Door

Know Your Rights: If ICE Confronts You

To protect yourself and your family, know your rights if immigration agents show up at your door, pull you over, or stop you on the street.

Know Your Rights

Resistance, Retaliation, Repression: Two Years in California Immigration Detention

Our report analyzes hundreds of complaints filed by detained people through Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) grievance system.

The records provide an extensive record of the inhumane conditions that immigrants inside the facilities have long fought to publicize, including hazardous facilities, medical neglect, harassment, sleep deprivation, abuse of solitary confinement, and sexual assault.

Read the report
bird behind barbed wire

The Latest

Press Release
Photo of a gavel with a shelf of books in the background

Federal Court Orders ICE to Remedy Inhumane Conditions at San Francisco Holding Facility

Issue Areas: Immigrants' Rights
Press Release
A cell phone displaying Know Your Rights materials

DHS Withdraws Subpoena Seeking to Unmask Instagram Users Who Posted About ICE Raids

A Victory for the Public's Right to Document Government Actions Without Retaliation
Issue Areas: Free Speech, Immigrants' Rights, Open Government
Press Release
Person filming law enforcement

ACLU Demands Information From DHS About Alarming Pattern of Retaliation against Those Recording Immigration Agents

Immigration agents have threatened, brandished guns, and arrested those who record their raids. The ACLU is urgently seeking disclosure of records related to this practice.
Issue Areas: Free Speech, Immigrants' Rights
Press Release
Graphic of Automatic license plate readers

Lawsuit Challenges San Jose’s Warrantless ALPR Mass Surveillance

EFF and the ACLU of Northern California Sue on Behalf of Local Nonprofits
Issue Areas: Immigrants' Rights, Privacy and Technology
Court Case
Oct 11, 2025

Garro Pinchi et al. v. Noem

We filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's policy of re-arresting and re-detaining immigrants the government previously had released from custody after concluding they were neither dangerous nor a flight risk.
Court Case
Oct 01, 2025

Pablo Sequen et al. v. Albarran et al.

We filed a class-action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's policy of arresting immigrants when they appear for court in Northern California and holding them in inhumane conditions inside the San Francisco ICE field office.
Court Case
Jul 09, 2025

National TPS Alliance v. Noem (NTPSA II)

National TPS Alliance v. Noem is a legal challenge to the Trump administration's early termination of Temporary Protected Status for Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Court Case
Mar 05, 2025

National TPS Alliance v. Noem

On February 19, 2025, the National TPS Alliance and seven Venezuelan TPS holders sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to challenge the vacatur of the previously ordered extension of TPS for Venezuela, and the subsequent termination. On March 20, 2025, the plaintiffs amended the complaint to also challenge the vacatur of the full TPS extension for 500,000 Haitians, with four Haitian TPS holders joining as plaintiffs. The plaintiffs are represented by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the ACLU Foundations of Northern California and Southern California, the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at UCLA School of Law, and the Haitian Bridge Alliance.