Five Southern California residents and several activist organizations are suing the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that recent immigration raids have violated the constitutional rights of residents who have been detained, the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California announced Wednesday.

The lawsuit accuses federal immigration authorities of racial profiling, making unlawful arrests, not properly identifying themselves amid immigration raids, holding detainees in poor conditions and denying them the right to a lawyer.

“Armed, masked goons in unmarked cars have descended in our communities and have stopped and rounded people up from all walks of life,” said Mohammad Tajsar, a senior attorney with ACLU, “often at gunpoint and without any justification.”

Attorneys said they’re requesting temporary restraining orders to stop federal immigration authorities from making stops without suspicion, arrests without probable cause and denial of access to counsel to detainees ahead of a federal court date.

Five area residents are named in the lawsuit, but three member organizations — the Los Angeles Worker Center Network, United Farm Workers and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights — created a class action labeled the “Stop/Arrest Plaintiffs,” representing those who have been stopped without reasonable suspicion, arrested without a warrant or probable cause or arrested by federal agents who didn’t identify themselves, the lawsuit says. Plaintiffs believe the class could represent a majority of those detained or stopped by federal immigration authorities.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include three Pasadena men detained in June while waiting at a bus stop on their way to a job. The men, Pedro Vasquez Perdomo, Carlos Alexander Osorto and Isaac Villegas Molina, were then held in the basement of the downtown federal building. Jorge Hernandez Viramontes and Jason Brian Gavidia, both U.S. citizens, are also suing after immigration agents detained them while they were working at a car wash and a tow yard, respectively.

Authorities at immigration detention facilities have denied lawyers with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center from meeting with their clients or entering the facilities to talk with others about potential legal representation, said Director of Litigation Alvaro Huerta. Detainees have been pushed to sign papers giving up their rights and leading to their deportation before they’re allowed to speak with a lawyer, Huerta said.

Maria, the wife of a man detained while working at a car wash last month, said she learned he was taken through a TikTok that her niece sent her. Since he was taken to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, Maria’s husband told her that officials at the overcrowded facility denied him his diabetes medication for two weeks.

Emily’s family calls immigration authorities each day since immigration agents detained her uncle at Bubble Bath Hand Car Wash in Torrance last month and have no answers, she said. At one point, she said, authorities said her uncle wasn’t being kept in an L.A. facility, but later that day he called the family from that location.

“It feels like we don’t matter,” she said through tears, “like our voices aren’t being heard. But we do matter. My uncle matters.”

Emmanuel, the owner of the Torrance car wash where the lawsuit was announced, said he tried to question immigration agents the day of the raid. Unmarked vehicles pulled up and blocked all exits, and armed, masked agents moved into restricted areas of the business, he said. At first, Emmanuel thought they were robbing the business.

Two workers ran, and the agents pushed one into a gate and another onto the wet floor before they were detained, he said.

Activist organizations said the experiences of Maria and Emily’s loved ones and Emmanuel’s employees are just a few examples of the violence and fear Latino and immigrant communities have dealt with since immigration enforcement heightened last month.

The lawsuit seeks to protect community members who have been targeted in immigration crackdowns and call on government officials to carry out future immigration enforcements constitutionally, said CHIRLA executive director Angelica Salas. It’s especially important now, Salas said, as immigration raids continue and President Trump seeks to increase spending on immigration and border enforcement through his “Big Beautiful Bill.”

“Hate has been unleashed against us immigrants,” she said, “and it manifests itself in a military-style no-holds-barred federal immigration campaign that is destroying our lives.”