A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles to detain people based solely on race, ethnicity, language spoken and other factors.
U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong granted the request for a temporary restraining order filed by a number of recent detainees and several immigrant rights and legal aid organizations. The judge set a new hearing for July 16 in the case that includes the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Plaintiffs include the ACLU of Southern California, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, United Farm Workers, Immigrant Defenders Law Center as well as three Pasadena men who were arrested June 18 while waiting at a bus stop: Pedro Perdomo, Carlos Osorto and Isaac Molina.
The 52-page decision released Friday evening by Frimpong comes after weeks of media coverage of shocking scenes of militaristic law enforcement actions unfolding across Southern California. Frimpong lays out the four core legal issues at stake with plain-spoken clarity in bullet-point form at the start of the decision.
“Is it illegal to conduct roving patrols which identify people based on race alone, aggressively question them, and then detain them without a warrant, without their consent, and without reasonable suspicion that they are without status? Yes, it is,” the judge wrote.
Since the blitz by the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies began on June 6, local outlets in the nation’s second-largest media market have been rife with footage of masked, unidentified federal agents swarming work sites, Home Depot stores and other retail outlets and a host of other settings. Local TV newscasts have been full of residents telling heartbreaking stories of neighbors, friends, associates, gardners, retail operators, child care providers and many others disappearing suddenly with no information.
“Roving patrols without reasonable suspicion violate the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution and denying detainees access to legal counsel violates the Fifth Amendment,” Frimpong wrote.
The judge also ordered federal officials to give detainees access to legal counsel for eight hours a day on weekdays, four hours a day on weekends. The ruling also orders them to allow detainees to conduct confidential telephone calls with attorneys and other legal representatives at no charge.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass brought the issue of the federal raids to the forefront on July 7 when she intervened while federal agents was delivering a made-for-TV massive show of force in L.A.’s MacArthur Park, sweeping through with mounted offices and tank-like vehicles. The Mayor’s arrival on scene effectively stopped the activity. The first few weeks after the raids started, downtown Los Angeles and other spots erupted with protest activity and sporadic violence.
Frimpong’s ruling details the harsh conditions for detainees in the basement of the federal facility at 300 N. Los Angeles Avenue, or “B-18” as described in the ruling. As of June 20 more than 300 people are being held in cramped and unhygienic conditions, without food and fresh water for long stretches, Frimpong wrote.
The judge’s rule lays out the case why the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policy has violated the Constitution. The ruling bans ICE, DHS and other agenices from forming a “reasonable” suspicion for detaining someone if that suspicion is only based on one or more of four factors, Frimpong wrote: “Apparent race or ethnicity; Speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent; Presence at a particular location (e.g. bus stop, car wash, tow yard, day laborer pick up site, agricultural site etc; or the type of work one does.”