A coalition of immigrant workers, legal organizations, and community groups has filed a sweeping federal class-action lawsuit against top U.S. immigration officials, alleging that recent mass raids across Los Angeles and surrounding counties represent a flagrant violation of constitutional protections and federal law.

The suit, Vasquez-Perdomo v. Noem, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on July 2, 2025. Plaintiffs include five Latino men—three of whom were detained while waiting for work at Pasadena bus stops—and four organizational plaintiffs: the Los Angeles Worker Center Network, United Farm Workers (UFW), Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), and Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

According to the complaint, beginning June 6, 2025, federal immigration agents launched a region-wide campaign of indiscriminate, militarized raids targeting day laborers, farm workers, car wash employees, and other low-wage immigrant workers in dozens of neighborhoods and cities. The raids, plaintiffs allege, rely on racial profiling, suspicion-less stops, and unconstitutional detentions—frequently sweeping up U.S. citizens and lawful residents in the process.

The lawsuit paints a disturbing picture of federal agents in tactical gear detaining individuals at gunpoint in public places like Home Depot parking lots, parks, swap meets, churches, and farmers markets. Reports indicate that officers often failed to identify themselves, provided no legal basis for the arrests, and detained individuals without warrants or individualized suspicion.

“What’s happening in Los Angeles is not law enforcement. It’s racialized dragnet policing dressed up in ICE vests,” said Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California and co-counsel on the case.

In one incident described in the complaint, agents tackled a fruit vendor in Westchester, pinning him to the ground with rifles drawn. In another, a U.S. citizen walking through a park in Santa Ana was cuffed and taken to an ICE station. Many arrests led to detention in the notorious “B-18” basement facility in downtown Los Angeles—described in the lawsuit as a dungeon-like space where individuals were denied access to attorneys, basic hygiene, and in some cases, food and water for extended periods.

The plaintiffs assert that these enforcement actions were motivated not by public safety, but by arrest quotas imposed by the Trump administration, reportedly requiring 3,000 immigration arrests per day nationwide. The complaint cites directives from White House officials instructing agents to abandon targeted investigations and “just go out there and arrest” people at locations like 7-Elevens and Home Depots.

While federal agencies have publicly claimed the raids are focused on “the worst of the worst,” plaintiffs say most individuals apprehended have no criminal convictions. A significant number, the complaint alleges, were detained solely on the basis of their race, language, or appearance.

“We’re seeing the resurrection of the worst excesses of pre-sanctuary Los Angeles,” said Public Counsel attorney Rebecca Brown, who represents several plaintiffs. “This is not just a legal failure—it’s a moral one.”

The suit seeks an immediate halt to the raids, the release of those unlawfully detained, and judicial oversight of detention conditions and access to counsel. It also challenges the legality of the B-18 facility as a holding site for civil immigration detainees.

If granted, the relief sought could significantly curtail the federal government’s ability to conduct broad-based immigration sweeps in California without constitutional safeguards.

The Department of Homeland Security has not yet publicly responded to the lawsuit, but in earlier statements defended the raids as lawful and claimed that detainees had access to medical care and legal representation.

Plaintiffs and their attorneys say the stakes are high—not just for immigrants in Los Angeles, but for the integrity of constitutional protections nationwide.

“This is about whether the government can disappear people from our communities without cause,” said Alvaro Huerta of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. “We intend to show that it cannot.”