A federal judge in California on Friday ordered the Trump administration to stop arresting people in their immigration raids without probable cause.
U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong granted two temporary restraining orders and instructed the Department of Homeland Security to create guidance for officers to determine “reasonable suspicion” outside an individual’s race or ethnicity, the language they speak or their accent, location or occupation, per CNN.
The judge also ordered the department to ensure that detainees have access to legal counsel, and that denying the detainees access to attorneys violates the Fifth Amendment, the New York Times reported.
“What the federal government would have this Court believe — in the face of a mountain of evidence presented in this case — is that none of this is actually happening,” she wrote.
The order comes the same day border czar Tom Homan argued that Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers only need to prove “reasonable suspicion” to detain and question someone.
“People need to understand, ICE officers and Border Patrol don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them,” Homan said on “Fox & Friends.” “They go through the observations, get articulable facts, based on their location, their occupation, their physical appearance, their actions. It’s not probable cause. It’s reasonable suspicion.”
The ruling comes after the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Trump administration for allegedly apprehending or questioning Los Angeles residents merely because they looked Latino.
“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 for ACLU Southern California, told CNN. “[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.”
DHS and the Trump administration have not yet commented on the ruling.
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Author: Kristina Watrobski
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