LOS ANGELES, Calif. – On July 2, 2025, the Los Angeles Worker Center Network (LAWCN), a coalition of eight worker organizations including the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, filed a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for abducting and disappearing community members using unlawful stop and arrest practices and confining individuals at a federal building in illegal conditions while denying them access to attorneys. LAWCN joined statewide partners ACLU SoCal, Public Counsel, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, CHIRLA and UFW to stand up and fight back.
The Warehouse Worker Resource Center supports LAWCN’s lawsuit because we will not stand by and tolerate the federal government’s continued unlawful terrorization of our state, neighborhoods and our immigrant communities.
In Southern California, it has been a nightmare for families and workers since the start of June. Over 1,500 people have been disappeared, many by masked men in plain clothing who do not identify themselves or provide evidence that they are indeed federal officers. Their families don’t know where their loved ones are. Their attorneys are not freely allowed in to speak to them. These people are being denied basic constitutional rights to due process and legal representation, and dignity.
The federal government is capturing and detaining individuals and families based on their race, language spoken, including pregnant women, small children and seniors, in horrendous and dehumanizing conditions. This sustained assault has primarily impacted day laborers, car wash workers, street vendors, service workers, nannies, and others whose jobs take them to public spaces.
We know that legal action alone will not change the horrendous policies of this administration. We are committed to organizing and building power of workers in workplaces and the community, citizen and noncitizen side by side, standing up for our dignity not backing down to state violence.
We demand:
- Stop racial profiling and ripping families apart
- Stop detaining community members without warrants or without a bona fide exception to a warrant
- Stop holding Californians in the Roybal basement without access to basic needs and rights.
The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Public Counsel, Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin, UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant and Racial Justice Solidarity Clinic, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, ACLU Foundations of Northern California and San Diego & Imperial Counties, Hecker Fink LLP, Martinez Aguilasocho Law, Inc, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), and Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
Statement from Sheheryar Kaoosji, Executive Director for the Warehouse Worker Resource Center:
“In the courts and in the streets, the LA Worker Center Network is taking action to stop this abuse of power. The federal government must end its campaign of racial profiling and stop terrorizing our communities. A strong and united community will defeat ICE’s aggressive and racist actions. Only an organized movement of workers and communities will change the cruel policies and systems we face.”
Read the complaint: http://aclusocal.org/en/cases/vasquez-perdomo-v-noem/complaint
Learn more about the case: https://www.aclusocal.org/en/cases/vasquez-perdomo-v-noem
