Community leaders, lawyers and immigration advocates gathered outside a federal building in downtown Los Angeles on Friday to demand the release from federal detention of a lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that last year briefly paused aggressive federal sweeps in Southern California before the U.S. Supreme Court allowed them to resume. Isaac Villegas Molina, of Pasadena, was arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement on Thursday, allegedly without a warrant, according to his immigration lawyer Stacy Tolchin. She immediately filed a habeas petition in federal court, alleging his unlawful incarceration and demanded his immediate release. Villegas was going in for an appointment for the Alternatives to Detention-Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), a program under ICE, when he was arrested. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Villegas was arrested for “multiple violations of his supervised release — including missing required check-ins,” after Villegas was initially arrested by federal immigration agents and released on bond last summer. “This criminal illegal alien has a rap sheet that includes felonies for forgery and fraud, and a misdemeanor for driving under the influence,” according to the department’s email response. Tolchin has disputed this claim. “[ISAP] is a very difficult process,” said Tolchin. “He has done everything required of him, but nevertheless, yesterday, he was arrested when he went in for his ISAP appointment, and we don’t know why.” Villegas was held at the “B-18,” a makeshift federal jail in the basement of the federal building, where protestors gathered outside on Friday, before being transferred to the Adelanto Detention Center Friday morning. Tolchin believes that Villegas was arrested because he is set to go before a federal immigration judge on April 24 to get a decision on a motion and terminate his removal case. The motion in his removal proceedings asserts that he was unlawfully arrested and detained based on appearance in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Villegas was arrested and detained by federal immigration agents in June 2025, the beginning of a summer marked by intense federal immigration raids sweeping through Southern California. Villegas, along with two other day laborers — Pedro Vasquez Perdomo and Carlos Alexander Osorto — were sitting at a bus stop across from a Pasadena Winchell’s Donuts on the morning of June 18. Four cars suddenly stopped at the spot, and six masked and armed federal agents emerged and converged, detaining the men without immediately identifying themselves, according to the lawsuit filed by Public Counsel and the American Civil Liberties Union. Along with Jorge Hernandez Viramontes, of Baldwin Park — questioned and detained from his job at an Orange County car wash — and Jason Brian Gavidia, an East L.A. resident stopped and questioned, from an L.A. County tow yard, they were the lead plaintiffs in the case. Community members gather for a vigil and protest organized by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) following an ICE raid in Pasadena earlier Wednesday. People held signs and chanted near the site of the arrests at Orange Grove Boulevard and Los Robles Avenue. The event took place in the parking lot and along the sidewalks of the Orange Grove Shopping Center on Wednesday evening, June 18, 2025. (Photo by Mark Savage, Contributing Photographer) Villegas was released on bond the following month after an immigration judge ruled that Villegas was not a danger to others or a flight risk, and was put in the ISAP program. After his release, Villegas became a plaintiff to the class-action lawsuit, then called Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem, which has since become a landmark case focused on the constitutionality of how federal agents conduct immigration raids. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Villegas and others who allege they were unlawfully detained by federal agents roving locations where immigrant workers were typically hired. It was filed by Public Counsel, the American Civil Liberties Union and other attorneys representing Southern California residents, workers and advocacy groups. A district court judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and wrote in her decision that federal authorities have been “conducting roving patrols without reasonable suspicion” during raids in Southern California last summer. The ruling placed a temporary restraining order against “roving” ICE agents. A panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision. However, in a blow to immigration advocates and those detained or affected by the detentions last summer in Southern California, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to grant a stay to the temporary restraining order, allowing ICE agents to continue with the street raids that had largely been conducted based on perceived race or ethnicity. Villegas has become an outspoken leader in this fight against sweeping federal immigration raids throughout Southern California. With just over a week until his hearing before a federal immigration judge for his removal proceedings, Tolchin believes that Villegas’ arrest and subsequent detention at Adelanto Detention Center is ICE trying to “cherry pick” a judge that better favors them. “We do not believe that due process exists in Adelanto, and that is precisely the reason for the arrest yesterday,” said Tolchin. “I think this is a tactic from DHS.” Tolchin’s belief is also backed by the fact that it is against the law that once a person is out on bond, that person cannot be arrested again unless there’s a material change that makes that person. “We are seeing ICE injecting itself into the Department of Justice, a separate agency, which is supposed to be bound by due process,” said Tolchin. “ICE does not get to dictate what the immigration courts do, and that is exactly what it is trying to do now.” Mohammed Tajsar, a lawyer with the ACLU of Southern California and counsel for the class-action lawsuit, said his arrest was in retaliation for the class-action lawsuit. “When [Villegas] came out, and he courageously filed a lawsuit against the federal government, his message was, ‘Everyone deserves rights,’” said Tushar. “And what does the federal government do…? They turned around, and they arrested him precisely because he has spoken out against their violence and their cruelty.” Community leaders and advocates backed the lawyers’ statements and demanded the immediate release of Villegas, who was known by his friends as “Panama,” the country he’s originally from. “Everyone knows him for his big smile, on his bike, being with community,” said Jose Madera, director of the Pasadena Community Job Center, a local hub where immigrant workers can find work. “And that’s what’s been taken away from us.” Julianna Lozada is a correspondent with the Southern California News Group.