County Fight Active-Litigation

Los Angeles County CA — Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem: Class Action Challenging Racial Profiling Raids

Los Angeles, CA FIPS 06037

Current status: ACLU SoCal filed Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem July 2025 as a class action challenging military-style ICE raids targeting Latino communities via racial profiling. Lower courts issued injunctions. Supreme Court (Kavanaugh) granted a partial stay. In April 2026, ICE arrested named plaintiff Isaac Villegas in apparent retaliation — LA federal judge ordered his immediate release. Case continues in C.D. Cal.

The Fight

Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem (C.D. Cal., Case No. 2:25-cv-05605) is the central legal battle over ICE’s mass-raid campaign that swept Los Angeles County beginning June 6, 2025. The case challenges not a detention facility but the enforcement pattern itself: military-style “roving patrol” sweeps through Latino neighborhoods, worksites, and transit hubs — stops made without reasonable suspicion, based on perceived race, accent, or the fact that someone was standing at a bus stop or car wash.

The lead plaintiff Isaac Villegas, a Pasadena day laborer, was stopped at a bus stop in June 2025 with two other workers in what became known in advocacy circles as the “Pasadena Three.” His case became a class action. By April 2026, it became something else: a test of whether ICE will arrest its own legal opponents.

The Fight

On July 2, 2025, five individuals, three membership organizations (Los Angeles Worker Center Network, United Farm Workers, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights), and Immigrant Defenders Law Center filed a class action lawsuit demanding an end to unlawful stops, warrantless arrests, and denial of counsel access.

The amended complaint alleged the raids were deliberately designed to target Latino communities — a Fifth Amendment equal protection violation layered onto the Fourth Amendment unreasonable-seizure claims. The prohibited profiling factors included:

Apparent race or ethnicity
Speaking Spanish or English with an accent
Presence at a bus stop, car wash, or agricultural worksite
Type of work performed

Lower courts issued injunctions barring ICE from using these factors. The Ninth Circuit upheld the injunctions. On the government’s emergency application, Justice Kavanaugh granted a Supreme Court stay of the lower-court injunctions, effectively giving ICE a partial green light to resume profiling-adjacent enforcement while the merits are litigated.

The Retaliatory Arrest

In April 2026, ICE arrested Isaac Villegas during a scheduled check-in at a downtown Los Angeles ICE office — in apparent violation of an immigration judge’s order releasing him on bond. The ACLU characterized it as “the first retaliatory arrest of a plaintiff challenging ICE raids in the country.”

The response was swift: ACLU co-counsel at the Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin filed a habeas petition. U.S. District Judge Michelle Williams ordered Villegas’ immediate release. ICE subsequently re-detained him and transferred him to the Adelanto detention center — triggering additional legal filings.

Parallel Front: LA Press Club

A parallel injunction sought by the LA Press Club — covering First Amendment retaliation against journalists covering the raids — represents a second front in the same LA enforcement theater.

Timeline

2025-06-06: ICE launches extended military-style raid sweep across LA County
2025-06 (late): Isaac Villegas and two day laborers stopped at Pasadena bus stop; the “Pasadena Three”
2025-07-02: Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem filed (C.D. Cal.) — class action, five individual plaintiffs + orgs
2025-08-01: Ninth Circuit denies government’s stay motion; lower court injunction holds
2025-09: Supreme Court (Kavanaugh) grants stay of lower-court injunction — partial green light for ICE enforcement
2026-02: District court denies government motion to dismiss; case proceeds on merits
2026-04: ICE arrests Isaac Villegas at scheduled check-in — apparent retaliation for lawsuit participation
2026-04: U.S. District Judge Michelle Williams orders Villegas’ immediate release
2026-04 (late): ICE re-detains Villegas, transfers to Adelanto; additional habeas proceedings

Key Actors

Isaac Villegas: Lead plaintiff; Pasadena day laborer; twice-arrested during litigation
ACLU Foundation of Southern California: Lead counsel
Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin: ACLU co-counsel; filed Villegas habeas
Public Counsel, NDLON, CHIRLA, Immigrant Defenders Law Center: Co-plaintiffs/co-counsel coalition
U.S. District Judge Michelle Williams: Ordered Villegas’ release
Justice Brett Kavanaugh: Authored Supreme Court stay order
LA Worker Center Network / United Farm Workers / CHIRLA: Organizational plaintiffs

Why This Fight Matters

This case is not about a detention facility — it’s about whether ICE can profile its way through an entire metropolitan area and then arrest the person who sued them for it. The retaliation against Villegas is a direct escalation of the government’s posture: enforcement without legal accountability, and a signal to other plaintiffs that participation in litigation carries personal risk. The Supreme Court stay sets a national precedent that profiling-adjacent stops may survive constitutional scrutiny at the appellate level — making the eventual merits ruling in the district court consequential far beyond Los Angeles.

Sources

This research is published at The RAMM — investigative reporting on the detention pipeline.

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