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A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from making numerous immigration arrests in Washington, D.C., unless agents obtain warrants or have probable cause that the target poses an imminent flight risk.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell granted a preliminary injunction requested by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other civil liberties and immigrant rights groups in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security.
Howell said the plaintiffs had “established a substantial likelihood of an unlawful policy and practice on the part of defendants of making civil arrests without a warrant and without probable cause.”
“Defendants’ systemic failure to apply the probable cause standard, including failure to consider the risk of escape, directly violates” immigration law and DHS implementing regulations, the judge said.
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A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from making numerous immigration-related arrests in Washington, D.C., without obtaining a warrant or having probable cause that the person is a flight risk. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Federal agents generally need an administrative warrant to make civil immigration arrests, but the Immigration and Nationality Act allows warrantless arrests when agents have probable cause to suspect that the person is in the United States illegally and is likely to flee before they can obtain one, Howell said in the ruling.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys argued that federal agents often patrolled and set up checkpoints in D.C. neighborhoods home to large numbers of Latino immigrants, and stopped and arrested people indiscriminately.
The attorneys provided sworn statements from people arrested without a warrant or required flight risk assessment. They also pointed to public statements by administration officials that they said proved the government did not meet the probable cause standard.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys cited public statements from administration officials that they said proved the government did not meet the probable cause standard. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Lawyers representing the administration denied having a policy allowing warrantless arrests without probable cause of flight risk.
In addition to blocking that policy, Howell ordered any officer making a warrantless civil arrest in the nation’s capital to document “the specific and particular facts that supported the officer’s probable cause prior to arrest to believe that the person is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.”
The judge also asked the administration to submit the documentation to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
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The judge said the plaintiffs had “established a substantial likelihood of an unlawful policy and practice on the part of defendants of making civil arrests without a warrant and without probable cause.” (Getty Images)
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The ruling is similar to two other rulings in Colorado and California in cases also brought by the ACLU.
Another judge barred immigration agents from targeting people solely based on factors such as their race, language, employment or location, after finding that agents were conducting indiscriminate checks. The Supreme Court lifted the ban order in the case in September.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
