A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt immigration raids in Los Angeles and in six other counties across California.
The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other immigrant rights groups on July 2, on behalf of three immigrants who were arrested at a Pasadena bus stop while looking for work, and two US citizens who were held by federal agents, one of whom had reportedly shown an ID.
They claimed that federal agents are violating the Constitution by using characteristics like race or speaking Spanish as the sole basis for arrests, performing raids without warrants and denying legal counsel to detainees.
ACLU attorney said, “No matter the color of their skin, what language they speak, or where they work, everyone is guaranteed constitutional rights to protect them from unlawful stops.”
A fuller hearing is expected in the coming weeks as the groups seek a more durable order, known as a preliminary injunction.
Trump intensified raids
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has moved aggressively to crack down on immigration.
Last month, his administration called for ICE to expand deportation efforts in Democratic cities and “do all in their power” to achieve mass deportations. This led to a newly-imposed quota of 3,000 immigration arrests nationwide per day.
Over the last month, heavily armed immigration agents, often in masks, have been aggressively raiding and detaining immigrants and U.S. citizens at Home Depots, car washes, worksites and Latino markets across Los Angeles. Since operations began in June, the Department of Homeland Security says it has arrested 2,792 unauthorized immigrants in the Los Angeles area.
These raids even turned deadly when a farmworker fell several stories off a greenhouse during ICE’s large-scale operation at a marijuana farm in Camarillo, according to the United Farm Workers.
Protests broke out in Los Angeles
As a result of the immigration raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in areas of the city with prominent Latino populations, residents took to the streets. The demonstrations started on June 6, after federal agents executed search warrants authorized by a Los Angeles federal judge at four businesses suspected of unlawfully employing undocumented immigrants and falsifying employment records, according to a criminal complaint.
What initially started in downtown L.A., spread to Paramount, Compton, and has since escalated after President Trump called up the National Guard to address what the White House referred to as the “lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.” Even though Trump has defended his decision to send in the Guardsmen and Marines, saying the situation in L.A. was “out of control.”
The protests in Los Angeles have been centered on the ICE actions and arrests in the area, and have demanded an end to ICE raids and enforcement actions there.
Solidarity protests against ICE have broken out in other cities across the country in the wake of the federal response. Protests were held in cities including New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Dallas, and, in California, San Jose and Santa Ana.
Judge grants restraining orders against ICE raids
US District Judge, Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong on July 11, found that the DHS has conducted stops and arrests in Los Angeles immigration raids without probable cause and ordered the department to stop detaining individuals based solely on race, spoken language, location or occupation.
She determined that federal immigration agents cannot make immigration arrests in California’s central district solely based on “apparent race or ethnicity,” “speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent,” “presence at a particular location” or “the type of work one does.”
Frimpong said in her ruling that the court needed to decide whether the plaintiffs could prove that the Trump administration “is indeed conducting roving patrols without reasonable suspicion and denying access to lawyers.”
“This Court decides—based on all the evidence presented—that they are,” Frimpong wrote in her 52-page ruling.
Frimpong went on to say that the administration “failed” to provide information about the basis on which they made the arrests.
Frimpong then granted two temporary restraining orders (TRO) as prayed by the plaintiffs. The first TRO bars immigration agents from stopping individuals without reasonable suspicion which she stated violates the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.
The second TRO orders DHS to provide access to counsel as required by the Fifth Amendment, on weekdays, weekends, and holidays for people who are detained in B-18, the federal building in downtown Los Angeles.
The temporary restraining order also applies to the FBI and the Justice Department, which were also listed as defendants in the lawsuit and have been involved in immigration enforcement.
The ruling does not stop the federal government from obtaining search warrants and continuing workplace raids.
Trump administration’s response
The Trump administration has defended the crackdown as an enforcement of immigration laws. Noem and DHS officials have said that people accused or convicted of serious crimes have been deported under it. Trump ran on a campaign that promised deportations.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin condemned the ruling in a statement, saying, “A district judge is undermining the will of the American people,” she said. “America’s brave men and women are removing murderers, MS-13 gang members, pedophiles, rapists—truly the worst of the worst from Golden State communities. LAW AND ORDER WILL PREVAIL!”
She added that it was a “convenient and disgusting smear to say that law enforcement targets based on skin color. It is about legal status, that everything and criminality. That’s what we’re focused on.”
“No federal judge has the authority to dictate immigration policy — that authority rests with Congress and the president,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told City News Service in an email.
“Enforcement operations require careful planning and execution; skills far beyond the purview or jurisdiction of any judge. We expect this gross overstep of judicial authority to be corrected on appeal,” she added.
White House border czar Tom Homan criticized the order, “Look, we’re going to litigate that order, because I think the order’s wrong. I mean, she’s (Frimpong) assuming that the officers don’t have reasonable suspicion. They don’t need probable cause to briefly detain and question somebody. They just need reasonable suspicion. And that’s based on many articulable facts.”
“So, unless she’s in the officer’s mind, I don’t know if she would make that decision that, well, they’re not using reasonable suspicion. How does she know that? I mean, every officer has to bring articulable facts to raise reasonable suspicion, and then they can briefly detain,” Homan said.
U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles Bill Essayli insisted that enforcement agencies have adhered to the law. “We strongly disagree with the allegations in the lawsuit and maintain that our agents have never detained individuals without proper legal justification,” Essayli said. “Our federal agents will continue to enforce the law and abide by the U.S. Constitution.”
The Trump administration is seeking to overturn the court order and has filed an appeal at the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
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