LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A Los Angeles federal judge issued a pair of temporary restraining orders today limiting the ability of U.S. immigration-enforcement agents to detain people absent reasonable suspicion beyond merely their race, ethnicity or occupation, while also requiring that detainees be given access to legal counsel.
The orders stem from a lawsuit filed by Public Counsel and the American Civil Liberties Union accusing federal immigration officials from carrying out “roving patrols” and detaining people without warrants and regardless of whether they have actual proof the detainees are in the country illegally.
In a 52-page ruling issued early Friday evening, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, an appointee of then-President Joe Biden, barred 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 order, Frimpong ordered immigration agencies to ensure detainees are provided with access to attorneys or legal representatives seven days a week, and they must be provided with access to confidential telephone calls with attorneys at no charge to the detainees — and 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 organizations 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.”
In a statement, 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. “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.”
But U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles Bill Essayli issued a statement insisting 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 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!”
During a court hearing Thursday, Sean Skedzielewski, a government attorney, denied allegations that agents were conducting illegal detentions of immigrants, insisting that Department of Homeland Security enforcement activities are based on proper evidence and the “totality of the circumstances.”
But Frimpong 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 that most immigration stops do not happen to white people.
“It’s happening with people who appear Latino,” he said, adding that 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 the 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.
“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 last month when immigration raids across the region have prompted demonstrations and panic in Latino communities.
In a statement after the ruling Friday, 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.”
Attorneys representing Southern California residents, workers and advocacy groups filed suit July 2 in Los Angeles federal court against the federal government on behalf of people who allege they were unlawfully stopped or detained by federal agents. Plaintiffs contend they were stopped based only on their skin color or occupation as workers in jobs that traditionally largely hire immigrants.
The two main plaintiffs in the case said they were arrested by armed, masked agents merely for sitting at a bus stop. City and county officials from throughout Los Angeles County said Tuesday they are planning to join the suit.
The lawsuit alleges federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, have engaged in unconstitutional and unlawful immigration enforcement raids by targeting Angelenos based on their perceived race and ethnicity and also denying detainees constitutionally mandated due process.
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 in a statement. “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.”
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” with the ruling. 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.”
“This is a victory for Los Angeles. But it’s also not just a victory for Los Angeles. I think it’s a victory for the country, because what has started in Los Angeles, I have no doubt, is going to go to other cities,” Bass said in an interview with Eyewitness News.
The pair of temporary restraining orders was issued on the same day Bass signed an executive order aimed at strengthening city protections for immigrant communities.
“The indiscriminate snatching of people off of our streets was very targeted. They had no warrants. They did not know who the people were,” Bass said. “So what was the basis for them to snatch them off the street?”
With the stroke of a pen, Bass signed an executive order requiring all city departments to comply with L.A.’s sanctuary city ordinance, prohibiting the use of city resources and personnel in federal immigration enforcement. Among other things, the directive also mandates that each department deliver preparedness plans within two weeks to ensure no immigration activity occurs on city property.
“I just want to point out the irony for a minute that there is a need for a directive, that there is a need in our city to understand how to protect itself from the federal government,” Bass said. “Just let that sink in for a minute.”
Immigrant activists claim those detained by ICE are being held in overcrowded, dungeon-like, deplorable facilities without being given due process. Activists spoke out for immigrant rights on Friday morning at Placita Olvera in Downtown L.A.
“For the last 30 days, clergy across denominations and faith traditions have gathered each morning at Placita Olvera to offer worship, prayer, and presence,” said Dylan Littlefield. “We were one part of the broader summer of resistance, standing with our community partners in a sustained collective witness for justice, dignity, and care.”
