NDLON’s legal department engages in strategic litigation and provides representation in individual removal cases to support NDLON’s ongoing campaigns, build organizing power, and defend immigrants’ rights. Read more about NDLON’s work on emblematic cases below, and the grassroots campaign to end ICE’s deportation dragnet here.
Featured Cases:
State Court Litigation
Los Alamitos Community United v. Los Alamitos (filed April 18, 2018) (Superior Court, Orange County)
Residents of Los Alamitos, along with a local reverend and community organization, sued the City of Los Alamitos over an Ordinance purporting to exempt the City from the California Values Act. The lawsuit alleges that the City’s Ordinance is unlawful, wastes taxpayer money, and threatens residents’ safety and well-being. Read the complaint here.
Co-counsel: ACLU of Southern California, Latham & Watkins, LLP
Federal Court Litigation
Ramos v. Nielson, Case No. 3:18-cv-1554 (N.D. Cal) (filed March 12, 2018).
Ramos challenges the unlawful termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 200,000 people living in the U.S. and seeks to protect tens of thousands of U.S. citizen children whose parents would be forced to leave under the Trump Administration’s new, arbitrary, and racially discriminatory TPS policy. The litigation is part of NDLON’s ongoing campaign to build the power of TPS holders and defend TPS. Read the complaint here. Meet the plaintiffs here.
Co-counsel: ACLU of Southern California, Sidley Austin, LLP
Gonzalez v. ICE, Case No. CV 13-02216 (C.D. Cal) (filed June 19, 2013) and Roy v. Baca, Case No. cv 12-09012 (C.D. Cal.) (filed October 19, 2012)
Gonzalez and Roy challenge unlawful immigration detainer practices by ICE and the Los Angeles County Sheriff. On February 7, 2018, the Court granted in part Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, finding that ICE and LASD unlawfully detained thousands of individuals on immigration detainers. The remaining claims in the case are set for trial in December 2018. The litigation is part of NDLON’s ongoing campaign to end police-ICE collaboration. Read the Court’s decision here.
Read the press statements:
Unlawful Click and Arrest Tactic at the Heart of ICE’s Secure Communities Dragnet on Trial
Trial Of ICE’s Deportation Dragnet “S-COMM” Ending Today
Co-counsel: ACLU of Southern California, National Immigrant Justice Center, Kaye McLane Bednarski & Litt, LLP
Deportation Defense
Benito Jacinto
Benito Jacinto has lived in the United States since 1990 and is the father of two United States citizen children. In May of 2017 the San Bernardino Sheriff turned him over to ICE following an arrest for driving without a license. NDLON’s Legal Department secured his release on bond and is representing him in ongoing removal proceedings. His case is part of our ongoing campaign against police-ICE collaboration. Read more about it here.
Marcelina Rios
Marcelina Rios is a street vendor and the mother of five US citizen children, including a toddler and a daughter with special needs. In October 2017, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department transferred her to ICE after she was arrested for selling elotes without a license—a crime in San Bernardino County. She has now been held in immigration detention—away from her children—for more than four months. NDLON’s legal department is representing her in removal proceedings. Her case is part of our ongoing campaign against criminalization and police-ICE collaboration. Read more about it here.
Co-counsel: Law Offices of Stacy Tolchin
Romulo Avelica
Romulo Avelica, a father and long-time Los Angeles resident, was arrested by ICE after agents trailed him to his daughter’s school. He was released from immigration detention following a massive public campaign that secured support from, among others, the Los Angeles City Council, the Board of Supervisors, and California Governor Brown. His case is part of our ongoing effort to make our schools and other essential public spaces into ICE-free zones. He continues to face the possibility of removal. Read more about his case here.
Co-counsel: Diamante Law Group
To see our closed cases, click here.