A Los Angeles federal judge Thursday ordered the release of a plaintiff involved in a class-action lawsuit challenging the government’s illegal immigration raids in Los Angeles.
U.S. District Judge Michelle Williams ordered the government to immediately release Isaac Villegas, who was detained last week during a scheduled check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in downtown Los Angeles.
Villegas is a plaintiff in Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin, a closely watched lawsuit filed in L.A. federal court challenging the raids. The Pasadena day laborer sued the federal government in June 2025, after he and two other workers were arrested by immigration agents as they waited at a bus stop.
An immigration judge ordered Villegas, who is from Panama, released on a $5,000 bond the following month and he’s been checking in with ICE since then, according to his attorney, Stacy Tolchin.
Last week, ICE again arrested Villegas as he was attending a scheduled immigration check-in and jailed him despite the judge’s order granting his release. Chandra Bhatnagar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union SoCal, said the arrest violated Villegas’ First and Fifth Amendment rights “in what appears to be retaliation for speaking out against the Department of Homeland Security.”
Despite the favorable ruling Thursday, Villegas remained behind bars at the ICE Processing Center in Adelanto, according to Lauren Michel Wilfong, a lawyer with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.
“ICE must now immediately release Isaac without further delay,” Wilfong said in a statement. “But we will not stop there. ICE’s actions make clear that Isaac was targeted because he spoke out about ICE’s abuses, and to prevent an unfavorable court order finding that Isaac’s first arrest was unlawful. ICE acts with impunity because they believe they can get away with it. We say no more.”