LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Friday commanded the Trump administration to cease indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties, including Los Angeles.
Immigrant advocacy groups initiated a lawsuit last week, accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of deliberately targeting individuals with brown skin in Southern California amidst its ongoing immigration crackdown. The plaintiffs in this case consist of three detained immigrants and two U.S. citizens, including one who was held even after presenting his identification to agents.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, requested the judge to prevent the administration from employing what they argue are unconstitutional methods during immigration raids. Immigrant advocates claim that immigration officials have been detaining individuals based on race, conducting arrests without warrants, and denying access to legal representation at a downtown LA holding facility.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in an email that “any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE.”
McLaughlin said “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 government 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 government 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 recent 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 said. It goes on to describe raids at swap meets and Home Depots where witnesses say federal agents grabbed anyone who “looked Hispanic.”
ACLU attorney Mohammad Tajsar said 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 asked 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 government, attorney Sean Skedzielewski said 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 some cases, they also operated off “targeted, individualized packages,” he said.
“The Department of Homeland Security has policy and training to ensure compliance with the Fourth Amendment,” Skedzielewski said.
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-18” on several occasions since June, according to court documents.
Lawyer Mark Rosenbaum said in one incident on June 7 attorneys “attempted to shout out basic rights” at a bus of people detained by immigration agents in downtown LA when the government drivers honked their horns to drown them out and chemical munitions akin to tear gas were deployed.
Skedzielewski said access was only restricted to “protect the employees and the detainees” during violent protests and it has since been restored.
Rosenbaum said 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 said 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 18 Democratic states also filed briefs in support of the orders.
U.S. Customs and Border 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.
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