Last Thursday, L.A. TACO was investigating ICE sightings at the ISAP office in Downtown Los Angeles on Hill Street and 2nd Street, a popular location amidst the ongoing, quieter ICE raids happening now in Southern California.
While there, we witnessed masked federal immigration agents drive towards the loading dock, just as another agent was bringing down a man from the ISAP office—who we would later discover to be Isaac Antonio Villegas Molina.
“Last week, ICE arrested Isaac Villegas despite an immigration judge’s order granting his release on bond, in what appears to be retaliation for speaking out against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” ACLU wrote in a statement. “Last summer, when the federal government unleashed an illegal deportation campaign on Southern California communities using blatant racial profiling tactics, brave individuals like Isaac Villegas stood up to the Department of Homeland Security to protect the dignity of all people.”
According to the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Villegas Molina was released on bond by an immigration judge after he was detained last June. There was no prior notice to Villegas Molina or his lawyer before ICE’s new detention of the man last Thursday, after which he was transferred to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center after briefly being housed at B18, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center’s basement ICE facility. Villegas Molina was scheduled for an immigration hearing this Friday.
The day after his detainment, NDLON held a protest and rally demanding the release of Villegas Molina, alleging it was unlawful and unconstitutional and an “apparent violation of an immigration judge’s order last summer releasing him on bond.”
On June 18, just before 6:00 a.m., amidst last year’s infamous 2025 summer raids in Los Angeles, Villegas Molina and several coworkers were waiting to be picked up for a construction job in Pasadena. They were waiting by a Metro stop in front of a Winchell’s Donuts on Los Robles Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard, when ICE agents drove up to them during a “roving raid” and detained all the workers.
With the help of the ACLU, Villegas Molina and two other laborers, known as the Pasadena Three, brought a class action lawsuit in federal court known as Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin, challenging racial profiling and unlawful stops by federal immigration agents.
However, on September 8, in a vote of 6-3, Justice Kavanaugh granted an official stay, writing in the Supreme Court decision, “Whether an officer has reasonable suspicion depends on the totality of the circumstances . . . those circumstances include: that there is an extremely high number and percentage of illegal immigrants in the Los Angeles area; that those individuals tend to gather in certain locations to seek daily work; that those individuals often work in certain kinds of jobs . . . that do not require paperwork and are therefore especially attractive to illegal immigrants . . . many of those illegally in the Los Angeles area come from Mexico or Central America and do not speak much English . . . ”
He further added, “ . . . apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion; under this Court’s case law regarding immigration stops, however, it can be a ‘relevant factor’ when considered along with other salient factors . . . ”
This decision led to what would later be known as “Kavanaugh Stops,” giving ICE and Border Patrol authority to consider ethnicity and accents during raids.
Stacy Tolchin, Mr. Villegas’ immigration lawyer, has filed a habeas petition in Federal Court, challenging his incarceration and re-detainment. He remains in ICE custody at Adelanto.
Despite reaching out to ICE for comment and clarification regarding Villegas Molina's re-detainment, we have not received a reply. This is a developing story, and L.A. TACO will continue to provide updates following Villegas Molina's hearing.
Update, as of April 23, 2025: U.S. District Judge Michelle Williams ruled for the government to release Villegas Molina on April 23, according to reporting by the L.A. Times. This ruling prohibits the government from re-detaining Villegas Molina without providing notice and a hearing before a “neutral adjudicator.”
Villegas Molina is scheduled to go before an immigration judge on April 24 for a motion to terminate removal proceedings against him.
We have yet to receive any comment from ICE regarding his re-detainment.
