Judge orders Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops, arrests in California
LOS ANGELES AP A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties including Los Angeles Immigrant advocacy groups filed the lawsuit last week accusing President Donald Trump s administration of systematically targeting brown-skinned people in Southern California during its ongoing immigration crackdown The plaintiffs include three detained immigrants and two U S citizens one who was held despite showing agents his identification The filing in U S District Court sought a judge to block the administration from using what they call unconstitutional tactics in immigration raids Immigrant advocates accuse immigration executives of detaining someone based on their race carrying out warrantless arrests and denying detainees access to legal counsel at a holding facility in downtown LA Tricia McLaughlin assistant secretary of the U S Department of Homeland Guard declared in an email that any states that individuals have been targeted by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE McLaughlin revealed enforcement operations are highly targeted and officers do their due diligence before making arrests Judge Maame E Frimpong also issued a separate order barring the federal authorities from restricting attorney access at a Los Angeles immigration detention facility Frimpong issued the orders the day after a hearing during which advocacy groups argued that the establishment was violating the Fourth and Fifth amendments of the constitution Immigrants and Latino communities across Southern California have been on edge for weeks since the Trump administration stepped up arrests at car washes Home Depot parking lots immigration courts and a range of businesses Tens of thousands of people have participated in rallies in the region over the raids and the subsequent deployment of the National Guard and Marines The order also applies to Ventura County where busloads of workers were detained Thursday while the court hearing was underway after federal agents descended on a cannabis farm leading to clashes with protesters and multiple injuries According to the American Civil Liberties Union the modern wave of immigration enforcement has been driven by an arbitrary arrest quota and based on broad stereotypes based on race or ethnicity When detaining the three day laborers who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit all immigration agents knew about them is that they were Latino and were dressed in construction work clothes the filing declared It goes on to describe raids at swap meets and Home Depots where spectators say federal agents grabbed anyone who looked Hispanic ACLU attorney Mohammad Tajsar stated Brian Gavidia one of the U S citizens who was detained was physically assaulted for no other reason than he was Latino and working at a tow yard in a predominantly Latin American neighborhood Tajsar requested why immigration agents detained everyone at a car wash except two white workers according to a declaration by a car wash worker if race wasn t involved Representing the establishment attorney Sean Skedzielewski announced there was no evidence that federal immigration agents considered race in their arrests and that they only considered appearance as part of the totality of the circumstances including prior surveillance and interactions with people in the field In specific cases they also operated off targeted individualized packages he reported The Department of Homeland Protection has strategy and training to ensure compliance with the Fourth Amendment Skedzielewski mentioned Lawyers from Immigrant Defenders Law Center and other groups say they also have been denied access to a U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in downtown LA known as B- on several occasions since June according to court documents Lawyer Mark Rosenbaum announced in one occurrence on June attorneys attempted to shout out basic rights at a bus of people detained by immigration agents in downtown LA when the administration drivers honked their horns to drown them out and chemical munitions akin to tear gas were deployed Skedzielewski noted access was only restricted to protect the employees and the detainees during violent protests and it has since been restored Rosenbaum stated lawyers were denied access even on days without any demonstrations nearby and that the people detained are also not given sufficient access to phones or informed that lawyers were available to them He disclosed the facility lacks adequate food and beds which he called coercive to getting people to sign papers to agree to leave the country before consulting an attorney Attorneys general for Democratic states also filed briefs in advocacy of the orders U S Customs and Margin Protection agents were already barred from making warrantless arrests in a large swath of eastern California after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in April
