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
collage featuring hands reaching for each other, courthouse columns, and a US passport

Know Your Rights Guides For Immigrants

The fundamental constitutional protections of due process and equal protection embodied in our Constitution and Bill of Rights apply to every person, regardless of immigration status. Explore our collection of Know Your Rights guides for immigrants.

Know Your Rights

The Latest

Press Release
Supreme Court facade with activist holding sign saying "TPS Justice"

Legal Teams React to SCOTUS Arguments on Cases Challenging Termination of TPS for Haiti and Syria

The Supreme Court's decision could also impact more than 1.3 million TPS holders from all 17 TPS-designated countries, as the administration is asking to make TPS decision-making unreviewable by the court system.
Issue Areas: Immigrants' Rights, Racial Justice
Court Cases: Mullin v. Dahlia Doe
News & Commentary
TPS holders Walkelis and Jhony with their children

For the Record: Documenting the Trump Administration’s Mass De-Documentation Project

ACLU civil rights investigator Emilia Garcia has spent the past year speaking with people whose lives have been upended by the termination of TPS.
Press Release
US Supreme Court building with illustration of raised fist bearing a ribbon that says "Protect TPS for all 17 countries"

SCOTUS Case To Decide Future of TPS for 1.3 Million Immigrants

We're challenging the Trump administration's attempt to make virtually all Temporary Protection Status decisions unreviewable by the court system.
Issue Areas: Immigrants' Rights
Court Cases: Mullin v. Dahlia Doe
Press Release
A photo of the main entrance of the James R. Browning U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco.

ACLU Defends Court Order Barring Border Patrol's Unlawful Stop-and-Arrest Practices

Plaintiffs in United Farm Workers v. Noem asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the April 2025 preliminary injunction
Issue Areas: Immigrants' Rights
Court Cases: United Farm Workers, et al. v. Noem, et al.
Campaign
Mar 2024

The Campaign to End California's Prison to Deportation Pipeline

Learn about the campaign to stop the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from funneling people into the federal deportation machine.
Campaign
Dec 2025

The California Immigration Detention Database

The California Immigration Detention Database tracks formal complaints, also known as grievances, that people detained in California's immigration detention facilities have filed to seek redress against the inhumane conditions of their confinement. Through the interactive chart below, this database aims to document patterns of abuse that people in detention have raised to detention facility staff and to act as a spotlight on staff responses to their grievances (or lack thereof). It is a resource for people in detention, their families, advocates, organizations, and anyone else who is interested in documenting the ongoing harms of immigration detention. For more information, read our report, Resistance, Retaliation, Repression: Two Years in California Immigrant Detention.