News

ACLU NorCal and co-counsel have sued Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones for unlawfully transferring immigrants to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The suit alleges that sheriff’s officials unlawfully transfer immigrants to ICE after they have completed their county jail sentences, rather than releasing them to their families and communities or following proper notificat... Read More

Community activists in Northern California today sued Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle for illegally sharing millions of local drivers’ license plates and location data with hundreds of federal and out-of-state agencies. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California and our legal partners filed a complaint against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and their contractors on behalf of eight people in detention who faced unlawful retaliation for speaking out against the inhumane and life-threatening conditions. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California, ACLU of Southern California and ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, and the board chair of ACLU California Action issued a joint statement in strong opposition to the gubernatorial recall. Read More

The National ACLU today called upon Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas to close 39 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities nationwide. The Yuba County Jail and the Mesa Verde Detention Facility in Kern County are among six detention facilities in California identified by the ACLU for closure. Read More

The Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus and the ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed a class-action lawsuit demanding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stop its illegal practice of using third-party contractor, G4S Secure Solutions, Inc., to arrest people at jails and prisons to funnel them into the deportation pipeline. Read More

Today, new enforcement priorities under the Biden administration – set out in a memo issued by Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske on January 20 — go into effect, marking a sharp reversal of a 2017 Trump directive under which virtually any undocumented immigrant was an ICE target. Read More

Today, we celebrate the Biden Administration’s swift action to repeal the Muslim and African “Travel” Bans—the result of the advocacy, drive, and resilience of impacted communities. Over four years, and after a series of legal challenges by advocates including the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, former-President Trump pushed forward various iterations of the Muslim and African Bans that tr... Read More

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus have filed damages claims against Governor Gavin Newsom, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), and CDCR Secretary Kathleen Allison on behalf of four people who were formerly incarcerated in California prisons but were transferred to the custody of Immigrations and Custo... Read More

Judge Vince Chhabria slammed ICE and the private GEO Group, Inc., which operates the facility, for their dangerous inactions and for issuing numerous false statements. The judge's order rejects ICE's bid to loosen the restrictions placed on them, but people inside are still afraid for their lives. Read More

A federal district judge issued an emergency order that requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to test all people detained and all staff at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center for COVID-19. Documents show the more than 50% of detainees tested are positive for COVID-19. Read More

This morning, a federal judge granted extraordinary relief -- weekly rapid testing, no new intakes, and a dorm for COVID-positive detainees -- for all immigrants detained at Mesa Verde Detention Facility in the wake of a COVID-19 outbreak that hospitalized two detainees and infected at least 7 others. Read More