– A Los Angeles federal judge issued a pair of temporary restraining orders on Friday limiting the ability of U.S. immigration 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 of 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.”
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 she wanted to hear more specifics and fewer generalities.
In his argument, Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, 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.”
