A federal judge on Friday ruled that immigration officers in southern California can’t rely solely on someone’s race or speaking Spanish to stop and detain people.
Magistrate Judge Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued a temporary restraining order after a lawsuit was filed by three men who were arrested as they waited to be picked up at a Pasadena bus stop for a job on June 18.
Frimpong’s order bars the detention of people unless the officer or agent “has reasonable suspicion that the person to be stopped is within the United States in violation of U.S. immigration law.”
It says they may not base that suspicion solely on apparent race or ethnicity; speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent; presence at a particular location like a bus stop or day laborer pick-up site; or the type of work one does.
The lawsuit, against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the head of Immigration and Customs and Enforcement, was filed as the federal government under President Donald Trump has aggressively made immigration arrests in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California called the restraining order a victory for rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.
“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,” Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, said in a statement.
“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.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats, have objected to the federal immigration actions in Southern California. Bass has said they are they are motivated by a political agenda “of provoking fear and terror.”
The Trump administration has defended the crackdown on people in the country without authorization. President Donald Trump ran on a campaign that promised deportations.
