A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday night which would put limits on the Trump Administration’s ability to carry out immigration stops, and arrests.
The ruling was made by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong in Los Angeles.
It was the result of a lawsuit filed by some immigrant rights groups and some people who were arrested.
The judge found that federal agents were using race, language, and their jobs as factors in stopping people for possible immigration law violations. She found it was in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and that those factors cannot be used as a rationale to establish suspicion to stop someone.
The ruling wouldn’t apply nationally. It was handed down in the Central District of California Court, a district which includes Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties, as well as Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties.
The judge also ordered that people being held at a federal detention facility in Los Angeles be given 24 hour access to confidential phones, and to lawyers.
U.S. Department of Justice attorneys unsuccessfully argued the stops were legal.
The ruling wouldn’t have been a factor in Thursday’s big immigration raids in Camarillo and Carpinteria, because federal agencies had search warrants in those cases.
The order could be short lived, with the federal government expected to move as soon as this weekend to overturn the ruling.
