A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday night that limits the Trump Administration’s ability to carry out immigration stops and arrests.
The ruling came from 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 people who were arrested.
The judge found that federal agents were using a person's race, language, and place of work as factors in stopping them for possible immigration law violations. She ruled that it violated the Fourth Amendment and that those factors cannot be used as a rationale to establish suspicion and stop someone.
The ruling doesn't apply nationally. It was handed down in the Central District of California Court, a jurisdiction that includes Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties.
The judge also ordered that people held at a federal detention facility in Los Angeles be given 24-hour access to legal counsel and confidential phone lines.
U.S. Department of Justice attorneys unsuccessfully argued the stops were legal.
The ruling wouldn’t have affected Thursday’s immigration raids on farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria. Federal agencies had search warrants in those cases.
The order could be short-lived. The federal government is expected to appeal the ruling.
