The Brief

Recent immigration raids carried out by the Trump administration across Southern California have routinely violated detainees’ constitutional rights, according to allegations in a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the federal government.

The lawsuit was brought by five workers who’ve been detained and four community organizations that focus on immigrant and worker rights. They allege federal agents have disregarded Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure and Fifth Amendment rights guaranteeing access to an attorney.

Attorneys for the workers say they hope the case will become a class action.

Mohammad Tajsar, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said at a news conference that his clients want a judge to stop federal agents from continuing to arrest people based solely on the color of their skin.

“Armed, masked goons in unmarked cars have descended in our communities and have stopped and rounded people up from all walks of life, often at gunpoint and without any justification,” Tajsar said. “To them, if you are brown, they will hunt you down. To them, if you have dark skin, they will take you in.”

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security told LAist that federal immigration agents are not racially profiling people for arrest and are not holding detainees in substandard conditions.

Detainment conditions called ‘deplorable’

The lawsuit alleges the government is holding hundreds of people in the basement of a downtown L.A. federal building that lacks beds, showers and medical facilities. The suit also claims that detainees are being held in cramped, windowless rooms where they often cannot sit or lie down.

Alvaro Huerta, an attorney with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said his firm “has attempted to get a hold of people who are being held at the basement of the federal building downtown… and we have been denied access to those people.”

Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, said in an email to LAist that federal agents do their due diligence when conducting immigration enforcement, and they are “highly targeted.”

“All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members,” McLaughlin said.

Her husband went to work and never came back

Maria, the wife of a man arrested by federal agents while he was working at a car wash in Pomona, said medical care has been inadequate for her husband. She said he wasn’t given his diabetes medication when he was first detained.

“They just barely gave it to him after two weeks,” said Maria, who asked that her full name not be used because she is concerned about her personal safety. “He's there, holding on.”

Maria says her husband was arrested by federal immigration officials while working at a car wash in Pomona.

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David Wagner/LAist

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Maria said she doesn’t know why her husband was singled out for arrest.

“He's not a criminal,” she said. “He just went out to provide for his family. And you never think that these things would happen to your family, until it does.

“It's heartbreaking,” she continued. “My grandkids asked for him, and I just don't know what to tell them.”

What the plaintiffs hope to achieve

The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to certify this case as a class action lawsuit, covering all people subject to "suspicionless" stops and warrantless arrests by unidentifiable federal agents.

Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said her group and the other plaintiffs hope to be in court within days. She said they plan to ask the judge to issue a temporary restraining order barring the federal government from arresting people without probable cause or holding detainees without access to a lawyer.

“Our community is asserting their rights, and ICE and all of these federal agents don't care,” Salas said. “It's super simple. Follow the Constitution.”

Los Angeles County education leaders say Inglewood Unified is emerging from a financial crisis that started more than a decade ago.

An estimated 5,000 students returned to district campuses this week for the start of what could be the last school year under the control of an outside administrator.

“ We spent the first day of school filled with joy,” said James Morris, the district’s county-appointed administrator since 2023. “Breakfasts were ready. Children were welcomed with balloons and red carpets.”

Morris said 95% of enrolled students showed up Monday and 96% on Tuesday— several percentage points higher than recent statewide attendance averages.

Last month, a state agency announced the district had met all the standards needed to regain local control, and if it maintains those improvements for another year, the board of education could again have the power to approve a budget and make other key decisions in 2027.

“This exit from receivership is something the community has been waiting for,” Morris said.

Morris told LAist he is “completely confident” the district’s scores on the state evaluation will continue to improve.

However, Inglewood, like other California school districts, faces continued budgetary and enrollment challenges.

The backstory

Inglewood Unified became one of 10 school districts in California to enter receivership in 2012 after the district requested a multimillion loan — and ultimately borrowed $29 million — from the state to balance its budget.

As a condition of the loan, the state, and later Los Angeles County, appointed a series of outside administrators to run the district.

To regain local control, Inglewood Unified must meet more than 100 standards related to finance, governance, staffing, student achievement and facilities established by the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT).

FCMAT’s July 2026 report found Inglewood Unified met all the standards. It now needs to maintain those standards for another year.

The district will continue to have additional oversight until it pays off the $29 million loan — with interest — and completes an external audit.

Challenges, opportunities ahead

Overspending was one factor that landed Inglewood Unified in receivership and the district's spending is expected to exceed revenue by $21 million this school year, according to the most recent FCMAT report.

The district has outlined a series of budget cuts, including nearly $7 million in the 2026-27 school year, that includes eliminating certificated educators, support staff and administrators because of declining enrollment.

The FCMAT report found the district enrolls 67% fewer students than it did in the 2003-04 school year.

The district closed nearly half of its schools since the start of the receivership. Five shuttered in June 2025.

Inglewood Unified, like other California districts, also expects enrollment to continue to decline. The state distributes funding based on an average of how many students show up to class each day, so fewer students means a smaller multiplier for education dollars.

However, Deputy Superintendent Bernadette Lucas, says new programs could help stem enrollment losses.

“ Historically, the district has seen its greatest drop between middle school and high school, as parents and students look for options that align to their passions and their futures,” Lucas said.

In response, Lucas said high schools are creating pathways for students to earn career and technical education certificates. In 2025, Dr. Dre and producer Jimmy Iovine partnered with the district to open a new high school focused on design, technology and entrepreneurship.

“I'm not saying it's a huge wave, but students are coming back slowly, and families are expressing more interest,” Lucas said.

How Inglewood families can get involved in the district’s future

Watch or attend a board meeting 

Five elected trustees represent Inglewood Unified residents. Even though the board doesn’t currently oversee the district directly, their meetings are where important decisions about finances, curriculum, school safety and other topics are discussed.

Community members can also share their experiences and ask questions during the public comment portion of each meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 19. The public portion of the meeting is expected to start at 5 p.m.

The agenda, livestream link and schedule of upcoming meetings are online.

Join a parent teacher group (PTA) at your child’s school

PTAs often organize fundraisers, student events and volunteer opportunities for their school. Parents, guardians, caregivers and other family members of students are welcome to join.

“ We're the fun arm of the school,” Marcie Brown, vice president of the Inglewood Council of PTAs, told LAist in July.

Vote in upcoming Inglewood elections

Several contests in November’s general election will shape the future of Inglewood schools.

There are elections for three of the district’s five board seats. The winners of these races will likely serve on the first board with decision-making power since the district entered receivership.

• In Trustee Area 1, incumbent Joyce Randall is running against challenger Cheryl Williams. 
• In Trustee Area 2,  Joe W. Bowers Jr. will face off against Shelby Richardson. Incumbent and Board President Carliss McGhee cannot run again after serving three consecutive terms. 
• In Trustee Area 3, incumbent Brandon Myers is running against challenger Yaritza A. Gonzalez. 

Voters will also decide whether to approve a new property tax to raise up to $396 million to pay for repairs and classroom upgrades.

LAist will have a guide to Inglewood Unified’s bond measure in our upcoming Voter Game Plan.

Since fall 2025, the Trump administration has moved to make it more challenging for people to become U.S. citizens.

In the past, candidates for naturalization studied the answers to 100 questions issued by the federal government. During their civics test, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers would ask 10 questions from the list; to pass, candidates had to answer six correctly. Now, candidates must be prepared to answer 128 questions, and more correct answers are required to pass.

The Department of Homeland Security has also reintroduced “neighborhood investigations” into aspiring citizens — a discretionary practice that had been shelved since the 1990s.

About a year since those changes were implemented, advocates in Southern California say they are seeing additional barriers, including delays in the scheduling of naturalization interviews and heightened scrutiny of applicants who request waivers for testing requirements due to a physical, developmental, or mental disability.

DHS has also proposed changes that could make it significantly more expensive to apply for naturalization; more expensive for candidates to appeal denials; and eliminate fee waivers and reduced fees for low-income applicants.

The agency has said that these changes are needed to cover the cost of adjudicating naturalization applications.

For Dahni Tsuboi, CEO of the nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, this claim rings hollow.

“When you compare the $240 billion that have been invested by Congress in the last 18 months on the enforcement side, and then, for the people who are taking all the steps to become citizens, we're just making that much harder, I think that's very alarming,” she said.

A sharp drop in naturalization interviews

In recent months, local immigrant advocacy groups have seen a drop in the number of people getting scheduled for naturalization interviews.

At the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, “we still have folks who applied before the [changes to the civics tests were implemented last October] that are still awaiting an interview,” said staff attorney Shawntel Williams.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California has been doing naturalization work for 40 years, Tsuboi said. Typically, 5 to 10 of their clients get scheduled for naturalization interviews every month. Since April 2026, that number has dropped to zero.

According to the nonprofit, the total number of naturalization adjudications per month — including approvals and denials — went from 78,379 in September 2025 to 37,832 by January 2026.

Tsuboi fears that naturalization rates could drop even further if DHS’s fee changes are implemented.

The changes, she said, could have an outsized impact on Asian Americans communities, who make up the largest share of naturalized U.S. citizens. At the nonprofit she represents, Tsuboi added, “75% of the individuals who apply for naturalization use the fee waiver or the reduced fees.”

How advocates are responding to changes  

To support immigrants navigating the evolving naturalization landscape, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles’s Shawntel Williams and her colleague, Eugenia Kim, have been hosting free citizenship education workshops at the nonprofit’s offices in Westlake.

They also offer free pre-screening clinics for people who are interested in determining their eligibility.

For people with a physical, developmental, or mental disability, Kim said “we strongly recommend — more than ever — that if you believe that you qualify to apply for an N-648." The form is a medical certification that's completed by a doctor who has personal knowledge of your disabilities and has actually treated you over the years.

"We also recommend that applicants have that completed N-648 reviewed closely by an attorney,” Kim said.

She and Williams plan to continue hosting their legal clinics for the foreseeable future.

For aspiring U.S. citizens, Williams added, legal advice has become essential, as news of all the changes to the naturalization process could be discouraging.

“We don't want people to count themselves out,” she said.