He’s an immigrant with a legal work permit and stable job. He has never faced criminal charges. He has a wife and 5-year-old son who are U.S. citizens and heavily depend on him.

Yet Brian was recently detained by federal agents while driving a friend, a U.S. Marine, back to his base in Twentynine Palms. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who examined his documents at a checkpoint said his work permit looked fake, Brian’s attorney said, even though it was valid. 

His detention terrified his family, leaving his wife alone to face an uncertain future of single parenting, financial stress and a complex legal process. 

But thanks to intense and immediate intervention, Bet Tzedek, a legal aid nonprofit, successfully appealed to the border agency to release Brian rather than turn him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – an outcome that would have shattered his family and imperiled his ability to stay in the United States. Bet Tzedek, whose name means “House of Justice” in Hebrew, has offered free legal services to the needy for more than 50 years, starting with Holocaust survivors and now also helping immigrants, workers, seniors, small business owners, tenants, unhoused people and others. It has deliberately chosen not to accept most federal funding so it can serve undocumented immigrants without restrictions.

The California Community Foundation supports Bet Tzedek and several other legal aid organizations with grants that help them protect individual rights, the rule of law and equal justice – principles embedded in the nation’s democracy by the Founding Fathers. 

Yet legal aid nonprofits say they are overwhelmed as Los Angeles has been hit by three massive crises in a row: not only the aggressive federal actions against migrants, but also the Palisades and Eaton wildfires, and a surge of evictions after L.A. county and city COVID-19 tenant protections expired in 2023. Now, more than ever, legal advocates say they need support to protect the hundreds of vulnerable community members who are being rounded up and thrown into detention, often without regard to legal rights.

“The tsunami of evictions, the fires and the raids emphasize the critical role of a robust legal services firm to be present for our community that’s clamoring for help because they don’t know where to turn,” said Ana Maria Garcia, vice president of Access to Justice Initiatives for Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County. 

“It is heart-wrenching. It is overwhelming at times. We need a lot of help,” she said. “But I believe in the human spirit and I believe in our ability to serve each other to meet the moment and come out on the other side a stronger Los Angeles.”

Since ICE launched massive raids in June, Immigrant Defenders Law Center has been flooded with calls for help and is now juggling nearly 1,400 verified cases of people who have been detained…

Since ICE launched massive raids in June, Immigrant Defenders Law Center has been flooded with calls for help and is now juggling nearly 1,400 verified cases of people who have been detained, said Lindsay Toczylowski, the firm’s co-founder and CEO. ImmDef, another CCF partner grantee, has become one of the largest immigration legal service providers in California since its founding a decade ago. The clinic serves more than 30,000 clients annually in more than 10 counties, including Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino and the San Diego-Tijuana border region.

Previous administrations generally prioritized for deportation migrants who posed threats to national security, had committed felony crimes or were members of criminal street gangs. Although the Trump administration initially said it would target “criminals,” the current ICE raids are sweeping in a far broader swath of people – most of them with no criminal history and many who have lived in the United States for decades.

ICE held nearly 60,000 people in detention as of September and 71.5% had no criminal convictions, according to federal data gathered by Syracuse University’s immigration tracker. In Southern California, ICE arrested more than 2,000 people in June; about 68% of them had no criminal convictions and 57% had never been charged with a crime. 

A Mexican government survey of 330 detainees found half had lived in the United States for more than 10 years and nearly a third had U.S.-born children. The majority of them worked in construction and landscaping; at car washes and factories. 

“They are neighbors, small business owners, homeowners, parents and grandparents,” Toczylowski said. “So for all of those reasons, the work has just taken on a pace that in my 15 years of doing this work, I’ve never seen.”

Once detained, their most urgent and immediate need is legal representation, Toczylowski said. 

“When people are sitting in ICE detention centers, they need a lawyer, truly by any means necessary, because it’s really, in most cases, the only thing that will give them a fighting chance to remain here and remain with their families,” she said.

Funding from CCF has helped ImmDef hire 11 new attorneys since September. Toczylowski said her staff is still stretched beyond capacity.

Funding from CCF has helped ImmDef hire 11 new attorneys since September. But Toczylowski said her staff is still stretched beyond capacity. In the last four years, she said, fewer than a dozen of their clients were kept in detention; the overwhelming majority were released back into the community while their cases progressed through the system. That has changed so dramatically that ImmDef is using its limited legal resources to represent only those in detention.

Attorneys are visiting their clients held in detention facilities in downtown LA or Adelanto nearly every day, including weekends. Staff constantly stays in touch with family members to keep track of where their loved ones are detained – one-third have been sent to other states, many to Texas, Louisiana and other locales that legal advocates fear may have fewer protections against hasty deportation, she said. 

For others in need, ImmDef is referring those who have been released from detention to other attorneys and offering self-help resources on its website. They include “Know Your Rights” videos and guides on applying for asylum or requesting bonds. The organization has also partnered to create a bond fund with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, another CCF grantee.

And several CCF grantees are leading legal defense efforts at a broader level through a federal class-action lawsuit to demand an end to racial profiling, illegal stops and seizures, arrests without warrants or probable cause and denial of due process in federal immigration enforcement.

In other action, day-laborer organizations in Pomona and Pasadena have organized “migra watch” programs to observe and document interactions between immigration authorities and the public to ensure rights are protected. The Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, a CCF grantee, also proactively asks day laborers for their emergency contact information should they need to let families know about detentions. 

Laura Moreno, the Pomona center’s immigrant rights director, said her staff began seeing immigration raids against ordinary community members in April, unlike the more targeted arrests backed by warrants in the past. The center confirmed at least 10 people arrested on April 22 at the Home Depot in Pomona and other locales in El Monte, including a market where one detainee had gone to buy bread.

That was a precursor of what was to come June 7, when federal agents unleashed massive raids across the Los Angeles area. 

Demand for services exploded for the Pomona center and other nonprofits assisting immigrants. In addition to the raids, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has begun issuing notices to appear in court for many asylum applicants who were previously able to respond to various requests online, Moreno said. They also began seeing cancellation of work permits they routinely received while they were waiting for their cases to progress, she added. Those changes have also increased staff workload demands

Toczylowski and others said their biggest challenge now is raising funds to help meet the burgeoning needs.

“When we are able to hire a new attorney, that means dozens of people will not have to face an immigration judge alone. It means that families won’t have to face potential separation without having a fighting chance to keep their families together.”
– Lindsay Toczylowski, CEO Immigrant Defenders Law Center

“Every single dollar that we raise, we are putting towards our rapid response efforts and our litigation efforts to fight back against these authoritarian practices and to fight for our communities,” Toczylowski said. “When we are able to hire a new attorney, that means dozens of people will not have to face an immigration judge alone. It means that families won’t have to face potential separation without having a fighting chance to keep their families together.”

Bet Tzedek is also scrambling to find more attorneys, social workers and case managers to handle the escalating crises. The nonprofit is expanding workshops to help families prepare for the possible deportation of loved ones by providing, for instance, information about needed documents – who would care for children left behind, how estate assets would be handled. The legal team is combating a rise in crimes against immigrants, who have become less willing to report labor exploitation and other abuses due to fear stoked by ICE raids. Bet Tzedek is also helping wildfire survivors, predominantly in Altadena, navigate insurance and other issues in the rebuilding and recovery process.

“We are in dire need to respond to the community in our homeowner work, our employment rights, our estate planning and certainly our immigration practice,” said Mary Tanagho Ross, the nonprofit’s vice president of legal services. “The need was already tremendous, but now with these crises…the need for greater funding has never been more obvious.”

[Bet Tzedek] is combating a rise in crimes against immigrants, who have become less willing to report labor exploitation and other abuses due to fear stoked by ICE raids. Bet Tzedek is also helping wildfire survivors, predominantly in Altadena, navigate insurance and other issues in the rebuilding and recovery process.

Jessie and her family have seen the value of legal representation firsthand. The 12-year-old’s mother was taken by ICE agents on August 20, although she has no criminal record and has lived in the United States for more than 25 years. The single mother of five had been married to a U.S. citizen until he died from COVID-19 during the pandemic, said her attorney, Magda Madrigal of Bet Tzedek. The mother’s older daughter just enlisted in the U.S. Marines. 

The mother’s absence has especially devastated her three youngest children. Jessie, an honors student with medals for straight As, top reading test scores and a Science Olympiad robotics project, said she got so depressed and fearful that she couldn’t concentrate on school. For the first time in her life, she began getting Fs. Her younger brothers, ages 10 and nine, have constantly cried and acted out.

Jessie said her mother was everything – cooking her favorite mole and taquitos, taking the children to school and medical appointments, teaching her how to do nails. 

“I’m scared my mom is not coming out and what will happen to us?” Jessie said.

But Jessie’s mother was released on bail on Oct. 16, after two months in the Adelanto detention facility, thanks to teamwork between Bet Tzedek and ImmDef. Bet Tzedek represented the family against an eviction attempt – which the landlord has dropped, at least for now – while ImmDef handled the immigration issues.

Whatever challenges lie ahead, the legal aid attorneys say they are not backing down. 

“This is the moment that Bet Tzedek was made for,” Tanagho Ross said. “We are rising to the challenge…to pursue justice and offer that no matter what.”

–Teresa Watanabe