Latino tenants sued their landlord. A lawyer told them they would be "picked up by ICE."

Yahoo

23-07-2025

In her entire law career, Sarah McCracken has never seen anything like the email she received on June 25.
McCracken, a tenants' rights lawyer at Tobener Ravenscroft, is currently representing a Latino family suing a landlord and real estate agent for illegal eviction after being kicked out of their Baldwin Park home last year.
A few weeks after being served, amid a series of ICE raids primarily targeting Latino communities in L.A. County, Rod Fehlman, the lawyer who appeared to be representing the agent at the time, sent McCracken's team a series of emails disputing the lawsuit and urging them to drop the case.
He ended the correspondence with this: "It is also interesting to note that your clients are likely to be picked up by ICE and deported prior to trial thanks to all the good work the Trump administration has done in regards to immigration in California."
"It's racist," McCracken said. "Not only is it unethical and probably illegal, but it's just a really wild thing to say — especially since my clients are U.S. citizens."
The comment arrived as ICE raises tensions between landlords and Latino tenants. According to California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, ICE has been pressuring some landlords to report their tenants' immigration status.
Bonta's office issued a consumer alert on Tuesday reminding landlords that "it is illegal in California to discriminate against tenants or to harass or retaliate against a tenant by disclosing their immigration status to law enforcement."
Fehlman didn't respond to requests for comment, nor did the clients he seemed to be representing: real estate agent David Benavides and brokerage Majesty One Properties, Inc. Fehlman's role in the case is unclear; following requests for comment from The Times, Benavides and the brokerage responded to McCracken's complaint using a different law firm.
But according to McCracken, Fehlman serves as the defendants' personal attorney and will likely still take part in the lawsuit in an advisory role.
Evicted
From 2018 to 2024, Yicenia Morales rented a two-bedroom condo in Baldwin Park, which she shared with her husband, three children and grandson. According to her wrongful eviction lawsuit filed in May, the house had a slew of problems: faulty electricity, leaks in the bathroom, bad ventilation, and a broken heater, air-conditioning unit and garage door.
"There was a lot that needed to be fixed, but we accepted it because we were just happy to find a place to live," Morales said.
The real problems started in 2024, when her landlord, Celia Ruiz, started asking the family to leave because she wanted to sell the property, which isn't a valid reason for eviction under California law or Baldwin Park's Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, the suit said.
According to the lawsuit, Ruiz then changed her story, alleging that she wanted to move into the house herself, which would be a valid reason for eviction. According to the suit, Ruiz and her real estate agent, David Benavides of Majesty One Properties, constantly urged Morales and her family to leave.
In September, the pressure mounted. Ruiz penned a handwritten note saying she needed the house back, and Benavides began calling them almost every day, the suit said.
In November, assuming Ruiz needed to move back in, Morales left. But instead of moving in herself, Ruiz put the property on the market in January and sold it by March.
"I really believed she needed the house for herself," Morales said. "I'm just tired of people taking advantage of others."
Lawyer tactics
Depending on your interpretation of California's Business and Professions Code, Fehlman's comment could be illegal, McCracken said. Section 6103.7 says lawyers can be suspended, disbarred or disciplined if they "report suspected immigration status or threaten to report suspected immigration status of a witness or party to a civil or administrative action."
In addition, the State Bar of California bans lawyers from threatening to present criminal, administrative or disciplinary charges to obtain an advantage in a civil dispute.
You could argue that Fehlman's email isn't a threat. He never said he'd call ICE himself, only claiming that Morales and her family "are likely to be picked up by ICE and deported."
Morales and her entire family are all U.S. citizens. But she said she feels racially profiled because of her last name.
"It's not fair for him to take advantage of that," she said. "I was born here. I have a birth certificate. I pay taxes."
Just to be safe, Morales sent her birth certificates to McCracken's team. Even though she's a citizen, if Fehlman reports her to ICE, she still doesn't feel safe.
Federal agents have arrested U.S. citizens during its recent raids across L.A, and a 2018 investigation by The Times found that ICE has arrested nearly 1,500 U.S. citizens since 2012, detaining some for years at a time.
"I was already depressed over the eviction. Now I'm hurt, embarrassed and nervous as well. Will he really call ICE on us?" Morales said.
McCracken said Fehlman's message is a byproduct of the current anti-immigrant political environment. Fehlman sent the email on June 25, the end of a jarring month that saw the agency arrest 2,031 people across seven counties in Southern California, 68% of which had no criminal convictions.
"People seem to be emboldened to flout the law because they see people at the top doing it," she said. "It's totally unacceptable behavior."
An ironic twist, she added, is that Fehlman's own client at the time was also Latino.
"I don't know if Benavides was aware that his lawyer is making racially profiling comments, but I don't think he'd want to work with someone like that," McCracken said.
The case is still in its early stages. Benavides and Majesty One Properties responded to the complaint on July 17, and McCracken's team hasn't officially served the landlord Ruiz yet because they've been unable to locate her.
In the wake of the ICE comment, communication between McCracken and Fehlman halted. McCracken decided Fehlman's rant and possible threat didn't warrant a response, and Fehlman hasn't said anything else in the meantime. Her team is still deciding how they want to proceed in the wake of the comment, which could justify legal action.
She called it a dangerous attempt to chill her client's speech and a failed attempt to intimidate her into dropping the case. But he took it way too far.
"We're at a point in time where lawyers need to be upholding the rule of law," she said. "Especially in a time like this."
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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