In a searing ruling against the Trump administration, a federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked federal agents from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate immigration arrests that advocates say have terrorized Angelenos, forced people into hiding and damaged the local economy. <\/p>\n
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden appointee, was widely hailed by immigrant rights groups and California Democrats, who have been in a pitched battle with the administration over recent sweeps through Southern California immigrant neighborhoods. <\/p>\n
If adhered to, the ruling would stop immigration agents from roving around Home Depots and car washes, stopping brown-skinned, Spanish-speaking day laborers and others to arrest on immigration charges, as they have been for the past month.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustice prevailed today,\u201d Gov. Gavin Newsom posted about the ruling on X Friday evening. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe court\u2019s decision puts a temporary stop to federal immigration officials violating people\u2019s rights and racial profiling,\u201d he wrote. \u201cCalifornia stands with the law and the Constitution \u2014 and I call on the Trump Administration to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
The orders cover Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.<\/p>\n
The White House said Friday evening it would challenge the ruling. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo federal judge has the authority to dictate immigration policy \u2014 that authority rests with Congress and the President,\u201d said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman. \u201cEnforcement 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.\u201d <\/p>\n
In her ruling, Frimpong said she found a sufficient amount of evidence that agents were using race, language, a person\u2019s vocation or the location they are at, such a carwash, Home Depot, swap meet or row of street vendors, to form \u201creasonable suspicion\u201d \u2014 the legal standard needed to detain someone. Frimpong said the reliance on those factors, either alone or in combination does not meet the requirements of the Fourth Amendment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the federal government would have this Court believe in the face of a mountain of evidence presented in this case is that none of this is actually happening,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Frimpong ordered federal agents not to use those factors to establish reasonable suspicion to detain people. And that all those in custody at a downtown detention facility known as B-18 must be given 24-hour access to lawyers and a confidential phone line. <\/p>\n
U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, who has brought charges against protesters at the raids, blasted the ruling on X. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe strongly disagree with the allegations in the lawsuit and maintain that our agents have never detained individuals without proper legal justification,\u201d he wrote. \u201cOur federal agents will continue to enforce the law and abide by the U.S. Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ruling came at a particularly fraught moment as details of the largest work-site enforcement raid since the crackdown began to emerge.<\/p>\n
Agents arrested around 200 suspected undocumented immigrants at two cannabis operations on Thursday, and prompted a tense standoff between authorities and hundreds of protesters in Ventura County. A man who fell 30 feet from a greenhouse roof during the raid was gravely injured and the FBI is investigating whether shots were fired at federal agents during the protest.<\/p>\n
Although the order is temporary, the coalition will seek a preliminary injunction that would make it more permanent. The judge has not yet ruled on a request by Los Angeles city, county and seven other municipalities to join the lawsuit. <\/p>\n
\u201cLos Angeles has been under assault by the Trump Administration as masked men grab people off the street, chase working people through parking lots and march through children\u2019s summer camps,\u201d Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Friday evening. \u201cWe went to court against the administration because we will never accept these outrageous and un-American acts as normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
ACLU, Public Counsel, other groups and private attorneys filed the lawsuit on behalf of several immigrant rights groups, three immigrants picked up at a bus stop and two U.S. citizens, one whom was held despite showing agents his identification .<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s the most important decision in the history of the country about limitations on what immigration authorities can do when they carry out operations,\u201d said Mark Rosenbaum, a lawyer with Public Counsel. \u201cIt means that they can\u2019t racially profile, they can\u2019t treat car wash workers and nannies as illegally in the country just because of who they are. It means that those whom they sweep into detention have to have access to attorneys right away. And it means that the Constitution is not a dirty word. It\u2019s brought the rule of law back to Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs argued in their complaint that <\/a>immigration agents cornered brown-skinned people in Home Depot parking lots, at carwashes and at bus stops across Southern California in a show of force without establishing reasonable suspicion that they had violated immigration laws. They allege agents didn\u2019t identify themselves, as required under federal law, and made unlawful warrantless arrests.<\/p>\n Once someone was in custody, the complaint argues, their constitutional rights were further violated by being held in \u201cdeplorable\u201d conditions at B-18 without access to a lawyer, or regular food and water.<\/p>\n Frimpong firmly agreed with the plaintiffs, saying they were likely to succeed in trial.<\/p>\n Since June 6, immigration agents have arrested nearly 2,800<\/a> undocumented individuals, according to data released by DHS on Tuesday. A Times analysis of arrest data from June 1 to 10 found that 69% of those arrested during that period had no criminal conviction <\/a>and 58% had never been charged with a crime.<\/p>\n The sweeps have paralyzed parts of the city where high numbers of immigrants work. <\/p>\n Earlier in the day, before the order was issued, Tom Homan, Trump\u2019s chief advisor on border policy, responded to the tentative ruling, telling Fox News \u201cIf the judge makes a decision against what the officers are trained, against what the law is based upon,\u201d he said that it would \u201cshut down operations.\u201d<\/p>\n He echoed government attorneys who argued that agents, in deciding whether to stop a person, can consider location, vocation, clothing, whether they run, and other factors.<\/p>\n \u201cICE officers and Border Patrol don\u2019t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them,\u201d he said. \u201cThey just need the totality of the circumstances.\u201d <\/p>\n He said agents receive training on the 4th Amendment every six months. <\/p>\n Justice Department attorney Sean Skedzielewski, in an hours-long hearing Thursday afternoon, said he would seek a $30-million bond, should the order be granted in order to train agents to comply with it. Frimpong wrote in her decision she would reject the government\u2019s request, since the restraining order doesn\u2019t require training, only \u201ccompliance with existing law.\u201d<\/p>\n