A federal judge temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security from detaining people in Southern California solely based on race, language or occupation amid an uptick of ICE raids across the region and to provide people detained access to their lawyers.
Friday’s temporary restraining order comes after the ACLU spearheaded a lawsuit this month that alleges that federal immigration enforcement agents have been racially profiling and detaining people without warrants based on their skin color and have denied people access to lawyers.
U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong found that the Department of Homeland Security, ICE and other federal agencies didn’t provide enough counter evidence to the claims.
“And despite having nearly a week to produce information demonstrating the basis of any one of the Stop/Arrest Plaintiffs’ arrests or any of the numerous media reports, Defendants have failed to do so,” reads the judge’s order.
Frimpong also said the federal government didn’t show enough evidence that the stops aren’t race-based.
“But the evidence before the Court at this time portrays the reality differently. For instance, Plaintiffs have provided citations to news articles where those who appear to b e members of this District feel that the stops and arrests are overwhelmingly focused on Latinos,” reads the order.
Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and a lawyer in the lawsuit, said that no matter the color of a person’s skin, everyone is protected by the Constitution.
“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,” Tajsar said in a Friday news release.
The temporary restraining order covers the U.S. Central District of California, which includes the counties of Orange County, Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Riverside.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said enforcement operations are highly targeted and denied federal immigration enforcement agents were detaining people based on their race.
“Any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE. These type of smears are designed to demonize and villainize our brave ICE law enforcement,” McLaughlin said in a Thursday email.
In a Saturday morning statement to Voice of OC, McLaughlin criticized the judge’s order.
“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,” McLaughlin said.
Data from the Department of Homeland Security shows an overwhelming majority of the nearly 3,300 people detained in California are considered “no ICE threat.”
As of June 23, 84% of people – 2,748 detainees – are listed as no threats.
In a statement on X, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said federal agents haven’t broken the law.
“We strongly disagree with the allegations in the lawsuit and maintain that our agents have never detained individuals without proper legal justification. Our federal agents will continue to enforce the law and abide by the U.S. Constitution,” Essayli said.
The judge’s orders come the same week California Attorney General Rob Bonta signed on to the lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security along with the City of Los Angeles and a host of other LA county cities alleging they were using racial profiling tactics.
In a Friday news release, Bonta said immigration agents are being used by the federal government to instill fear and division in Los Angeles.
“The troubling use of masks, unmarked vehicles, and plainclothes to cover up immigration agents’ identities – and their own refusal to identify themselves when asked – has made it difficult to distinguish these agents from criminals,” Bonta said in the news release.
“Their sweeping stops of Angelenos, based not on any evidence of wrongdoing but instead on racial profiling, is flagrantly unconstitutional. Los Angeles cannot be expected to live like this, with many residents afraid to leave their homes and their civil rights under fire.”
[Read: Questions Continue Mounting Over ICE Raids in Orange County]
The lawsuit is part of a broader legal effort to end the current practice of ICE sweeps and overhaul detention facilities.
“The raids in this District follow a common, systematic pattern. Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force, and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from,” reads the complaint filed in federal court on July 2.
“If they hesitate, attempt to leave, or do not answer the questions to the satisfaction of the agents, they are detained, sometimes tackled, handcuffed, and/or taken into custody. In these interactions, agents typically have no prior information about the individual and no warrant of any kind,” reads the complaint.
The complaint also alleges that rather than target criminals, federal immigration agents have been targeting working class people and have also detained U.S. citizens amid an effort to meet a 3,000 immigrant related arrests a day quota imposed by the White House.
The cities of Los Angeles, Montebello, Pasadena, Pico Rivera and a host of other LA County cities have joined the lawsuit – along with the county itself.
As of Saturday, no Orange County city has joined the lawsuit.
Although there could be a push in Anaheim and Santa Ana to join the federal lawsuit.
“This is a council decision, and will likely be before our City Council in closed session, and I will respect that process,” Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said in a Thursday text message.
In a Thursday phone interview, Santa Ana City Councilman Johnathan Hernandez said if Orange County’s only sanctuary city joined the lawsuit, it would encourage neighboring cities to do the same.
“During an administration that is showing how far they’re willing to go in terms of federal overreach and violation of your constitutional rights – I think what it’s showing us is that the last line of defense you really have today as Americans are judges and lawyers.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.