ACLU SUES IMMIGRATION AGENCY AND SONOMA SHERIFF

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department is collaborating with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its officers to stop and search people who appear to be Latino, interrogate them about their immigration status based on their perceived race, and detain them in the county jail without lawful authority. The Sheriff’s Department and ICE have failed to notify individuals whom they have targeted of their rights under the law and of the charges against them, among other violations of the constitutional right to due process. Read More »

Lawsuit Seeks to Stop Lawless Inmate Transfer Policy
The California corrections department is using internal guidelines, rather than lawful regulations, to decide whether to transfer California prisoners to other states as far away as Mississippi and Tennessee. This means that inmates and their families do not know how the prisons decide whom to transfer. It also means that prison officials could use arbitrary and subjective judgments regarding race, ethnicity, and immigration status to transfer inmates thousands of miles from their families. The ACLU-NC is representing three advocacy groups in seeking to require that the prison system follow the law and make these crucial decisions using fixed, public rules, developed with input from the public. Read More »
Federal Class Action Against City of Antioch Documents Police Targeting of African American Tenants
The City of Antioch and its police department are engaged in a concerted campaign of intimidation, harassment and discrimination against African Americans who receive federally funded Section 8 housing rent assistance, say community members and attorneys from four Bay Area non-profit civil rights organizations who today filed a class action lawsuit in federal court. Read more »