By Lowell Cauffiel. Media: Breitbart
Conducting massive sweeps to arrest undocumented immigrants at known illegal alien hot spots in and around Los Angeles continues to be an uphill legal battle for the Trump administration.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Friday upheld a lower federal court order temporarily preventing federal immigration agents from making arrests in the Los Angeles area based on a person’s job, appearance, or spoken language as the sole reasons to target them for investigation.
The ruling does not mean that workplace raids will stop in Southern California. However, it does mean federal agents need to have specific probable cause to make an arrest instead of generalized suspicion about a person’s citizenship status.
In a 60-page opinion, the appellate court in its ruling released Friday upheld U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong’s temporary restraining order that general factors didn’t qualify as “probable cause” to make immigration arrests.
The three-judge panel wrote:
We agree with the district court that, in the context of the Central District of California, the four enumerated factors at issue — apparent race, ethnicity, speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent, particular location and type of work, even when considered together — describe only a broad profile and do not demonstrate reasonable suspicion for any particular stop.
Last month, immigrant advocacy groups representing people who claimed they were detained by immigration officers without good reason filed a lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and others, claiming the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps in Los Angeles were unconstitutional.
The lower court judge agreed and granted the temporary restraining order.
The appeals court ruling also cited a Los Angeles deputy immigration commander who reportedly said that for the raids, “certain types of businesses, including carwashes” were chosen by immigration agents “because past experiences have demonstrated that illegal aliens utilize and seek work at these locations.”
As Breitbart News has reported, the Los Angeles region has been a battleground for the Trump administration when its aggressive immigration enforcement met with violent protests, prompting deployment of the National Guard and Marines for several weeks.
Raids have been conducted at Home Depots, car washes, bus stops, and in one highly publicized case a marijuana farm in Ventura County allegedly using illegal child immigrant labor.
The Trump administration recently appealed the lower court order attempting to get it stayed.
However, according to the appellate ruling, federal appellate attorneys “did not dispute the district court’s finding that detentive stops requiring reasonable suspicion have occurred. They did not dispute that these detentive stops have been based solely on the four enumerated factors.”
Instead, they argued the lower court’s ruling was “vague” and that the plaintiffs could not show a “real and immediate threat” that they would be harmed again to justify “immediate relief.”
Frequent Trump critic, Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass claimed Friday’s opinion was a victory for “communities” in the region.
“The Temporary Restraining Order that has been protecting our communities from immigration agents using racial profiling and other illegal tactics when conducting their cruel and aggressive enforcement raids and sweeps will remain in place for now,” she said in a statement.
At the time of the restraining order, White House aid Stephen Miller blasted “Biden appointed” federal judge Frimpong.
This case is far from finalized. It heads back to the lower court for another hearing in September.
As of Saturday, the Trump administration has been uncharacteristically silent about the latest legal development.
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