A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a lower court’s decision temporarily blocking federal agents from making immigration-related arrests in Los Angeles without probable cause.
The three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the Trump administration’s bid to pause the restraining order. The judges said the plaintiffs are likely to prove that arrests were being carried out based on individuals’ appearance, language, or location — rather than on any lawful grounds.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused federal agents of using racially biased tactics to meet immigration arrest quotas. The city of Los Angeles and several other Southern California municipalities joined the suit, which alleges that agents used unlawful practices such as racial profiling and deprived detainees of their right to legal counsel.
In response to protests against the immigration raids, President Donald Trump deployed National Guard troops and US Marines to Los Angeles in June, marking an unusual use of military forces in support of civilian police activity on American soil.
Last month, a California judge blocked the administration from using race or ethnicity as a basis for identifying deportation targets and from denying detainees access to lawyers.
In Friday’s unsigned ruling, the Ninth Circuit judges sided with the lower court in barring federal agents from detaining individuals solely because of their race or ethnicity, for speaking Spanish or accented English, or for being in certain locations such as bus stops, car washes, tow yards, day laborer pickup sites, or agricultural areas.
The Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately comment on the ruling.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the decision a victory for the city. “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.
Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, also praised the decision. “This decision is further confirmation that the administration’s paramilitary invasion of Los Angeles violated the Constitution and caused irreparable injury across the region,” he said.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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