After a federal judge issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on Friday prohibiting federal police from racially profiling people during federal immigration raids, immigration operations at Home Depots and carwashes seemingly came to a halt over the weekend.
The TRO bars immigration officials from stopping individuals without reasonable suspicion. And authorities can no longer rely on a person's apparent race or ethnicity, their accent, or the location that they’re in, to make arrests.
Additionally, the TRO orders the federal government to provide access to legal counsel seven days a week for individuals detained at the Federal Detention Center on Alameda Street in Downtown Los Angeles.
The restraining order follows the filing of a federal lawsuit by Los Angeles residents, workers, and advocacy groups against the Department of Homeland Security, alleging unlawful stop and arrest practices.
“No matter the color of their skin, what language they speak, or where they work, everyone is guaranteed constitutional rights to protect them from unlawful stops,” said Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU SoCal. “While it does not take a federal judge to recognize that marauding bands of masked, rifle-toting goons have been violating ordinary people’s rights throughout Southern California, we are hopeful that today’s ruling will be a step toward accountability for the federal government’s flagrant lawlessness that we have all been witnessing.”
The ACLU filed a similar lawsuit after U.S. Border Patrol agents raided a Home Depot, a gas station, and other locations across Bakersfield in Kern County. The raids were reported to be the first large-scale Border Patrol operation in California since President Trump's election.
Seventy-eight people were detained during the raids, which Border Patrol dubbed “Operation Return to Sender.” CalMatters reported that Border Patrol had no prior knowledge of criminal or immigration history for 77 of the 78 people arrested.
The raids prompted the ACLU SoCal to file a lawsuit against the federal government in April, along with the United Farm Workers of America and five Kern County residents.
In late April, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Border Patrol from stopping individuals without reasonable suspicion or arresting them without a warrant or probable cause.
Yesterday, the ACLU SoCal reported that, so far, Border Patrol has been complying with that preliminary injunction in Kern County.
“The federal government reported Border Patrol has not made a single detentive stop or warrantless arrest during the reporting period of April 29 to June 21,” the ACLU SoCal said in a post on Instagram.
After the ruling in the ACLU’s Los Angeles case against the feds was announced on Friday, many people wondered if the administration would actually follow the judge’s order, given the Trump administration’s apparent disregard for fundamental constitutional rights.
While federal immigration detentions have continued, the daily, warrantless raids of Home Depot parking lots, car washes, and agricultural farms that we saw over 40 days have seemingly stopped.
Ron Gochez of Unión del Barrio, a group of volunteers that have been diligently tracking federal immigration raids since they first escalated on June 6, tells L.A. TACO that they’ve seen the raids slow down over the weekend, but federal authorities are still present in Los Angeles.
"The immediate weekend that followed, there was an absolute decrease in activity in the L.A. area,” Gochez says. “But the following Monday, we definitely saw activity again, but it was much less than the previous 40 days.”
Still, Gochez and Unión del Barrio have little faith in federal authorities adhering to a federal judge’s order.
“We don’t expect Trump or this administration to respect this restraining order and we as Unión del Barrio are not going to let our guard down. Our community surveillance and patrols continue,” says Gochez.
