It was unclear Saturday how the Trump administration will proceed with ongoing immigration enforcement after a Los Angeles federal judge issued a pair of temporary restraining orders limiting the ability of federal agents to detain people without reasonable suspicion beyond their race, ethnicity or occupation and requiring that detainees be given access to legal counsel.
The 52-page Friday ruling from U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, in response to a lawsuit filed by Public Counsel and the American Civil Liberties Union, bars immigration agencies “from conducting detentive stops in this district unless the agent or officer has reasonable suspicion that the person to be stopped is within the United States in violation of U.S. immigration law.”
The order also bars agents from relying solely on factors such as race/ethnicity, speaking with an accent or being at locations such as bus stops, day laborer sites, car washes or agricultural sites as a basis for detaining people.
In a separate ruling, Frimpong ordered immigration agencies to ensure detainees are provided with access to attorneys or legal representatives seven days a week, and access to confidential telephone calls with attorneys at no charge to the detainees — and that those calls “shall not be screened, recorded or otherwise monitored.”
“There are really two questions in controversy that this court must decide today,” Frimpong wrote. “First, are the individuals and organization who brought this lawsuit likely to succeed in proving that the federal government 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.
“And second, what should be done about it? The individuals and organizations who have brought this lawsuit have made a fairly modest request: that this court order the federal government to stop. For the reasons stated below, the court grants their request.”
After the ruling, U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles Bill Essayli issued a statement insisting 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 U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a defiant response on its social media pages, writing, “A district judge is undermining the will of the American people. 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!”
The White House issued a statement Tuesday morning defending federal immigration activity.
“The brave men and women of ICE are under siege by deranged Democrats — but undeterred in their mission,” the White House said. “Every day, these heroes put their own lives on the line to get the worst of the worst — criminal illegal immigrant killers, rapists, gangbangers, and other violent criminals — off our streets and out of our neighborhoods.”
Federal officials did not say whether they will appeal Frimpong’s ruling.
The lawsuit was filed July 2 in Los Angeles federal court by Public Counsel, the American Civil Liberties Union and attorneys representing Southern California residents, workers and advocacy groups against the federal government on behalf of people who allege they were unlawfully stopped or detained by federal agents targeting locations where immigrant workers are traditionally hired and accused immigration officials of carrying out “roving patrols” and detaining people without warrants and regardless of whether they have actual proof they are in the country legally.
It further alleged federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, engaged in unconstitutional and unlawful immigration enforcement raids by targeting Angelenos based on their perceived race and ethnicity and denying detainees constitutionally mandated due process.
The lawsuit accused DHS of operating a program of “abducting and disappearing” community members using unlawful arrest tactics, then confining detainees in illegal conditions while denying access to attorneys.
The two main plaintiffs in the case said they were arrested by armed, masked agents merely for sitting at a bus stop.
“I believe these events are unprecedented in American history,” plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Rosenbaum of the Public Counsel law firm told the court, referring to the events of the past month when immigration raids across the region have prompted demonstrations and panic in Latino communities.
In a statement following Friday’s ruling, Rosenbaum called the decision “historic.”
“The court ruled clearly that DHS’s unlawful and abusive practice of denying attorney access to car wash workers, nannies, and other hardworking community members rounded up and detained in cruel and coercive conditions — without beds, meals, or even minimal hygiene — must end immediately,” he said. “The question now for our federal government is whether it is prepared to conduct its operations under the rule of law. To date, the answer has been no.”
Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, hailed the ruling.
“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,” Tajsar said in a statement. “While it does not take a federal judge to recognize that marauding bands of masked, rifle-toting goons have been violating ordinary people’s rights throughout Southern California, we are hopeful that today’s ruling will be a step toward accountability for the federal government’s flagrant lawlessness that we have all been witnessing.”
During a court hearing Thursday, Sean Skedzielewski, a government attorney, denied allegations that agents were conducting illegal detentions of immigrants, insisting that DHS enforcement activities are based on proper evidence and the “totality of the circumstances.”
But Frimpong, a Biden appointee, appeared critical of the government’s stance, saying attorneys were offering only generalities without providing adequate legal arguments to back their position.
In his argument, Tajsar told the court most immigration stops do not happen to white people.
“It’s happening with people who appear Latino,” he said, adding the government’s roving immigration agents “are stopping people and asking questions later.”
Frimpong said it appears that “high-level government officials” seem to approve of these tactics.
Asked by the judge why it was necessary for agents to wear masks that hide their identities, Skedzielewski responded that government agents were trying to avoid being “doxed” if their identities were discovered.
DHS officials on social media have also denied allegations of illegal activities during enforcement operations.
“Claims that individuals have been `targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE. DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence,” according to DHS.
“ICE detention facilities have higher standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens,” DHS previously stated. “These types of smears are designed to demonize and villainize our brave ICE law enforcement. This garbage has directly led to a nearly 700 percent increase in the assaults on ICE law enforcement officers.”
Democratic leaders across California, however, hailed the judge’s ruling as vindication of their arguments that ICE raids have been carried out indiscriminately and without legal justification.
“Los 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’s summer camps,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “We went to court against the administration because we will never accept these outrageous and un-American acts as normal.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom said “justice prevailed.” He said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s “immigration agenda is one of chaos, cruelty and fear.
“Instead of targeting the most dangerous people, federal officials have been arbitrarily detaining Americans and hardworking people, ripping families apart and disappearing people into cruel detention to meet outrageous arrest quotas without regard to due process and constitutional rights that protect all of us from cruelty and injustice. That should stop now.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis called the judge’s decision “a vital step toward restoring constitutional protections and putting an end to the unlawful immigration raids that have terrorized communities across Los Angeles County.”
The Republican Party of Los Angeles County wrote on social media Bass “needs the political theatre to keep the focus off of her incompetence. SCOTUS will support @POTUS and federal law will prevail. Sorry, Dramacrats,” referring to the Supreme Court and President Donald Trump.
Miller wrote on social media that Frimpong’s ruling was “another act of insurrection against the United States and its sovereign people.”