Detention Horror Stories and Legal Pressure Keep Feds at Bay
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a temporary order that restricts immigration enforcement operations in seven Southern California counties, siding with immigrant advocacy groups who allege that federal agents have been conducting unlawful arrests and detentions.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request by the Trump administration to pause a July 11 order issued by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong. That order barred immigration officers from stopping or arresting individuals without “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the country unlawfully, springing from the lawsuit Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem.
Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California, praised the ruling and noted, “This decision is further confirmation that the administration’s paramilitary invasion of Los Angeles violated the Constitution and caused irreparable injury across the region.“We look forward to holding the federal government accountable for these authoritarian horrors it unleashed in Southern California, and we invite every person of conscience to join us in defending the integrity and freedom of communities of color across the country.”
The decision came after a 90-minute hearing held Monday in San Francisco, where a government attorney argued before a three-judge panel for a stay of the lower court’s ruling. The panel declined the motion Friday night, allowing the temporary restraining order to remain in effect while litigation continues. A hearing is scheduled for late September for a preliminary injunction that would extend this order.
The ruling stems from a federal lawsuit filed July 2 by Southern California residents, workers, and advocacy organizations. The plaintiffs accuse the Department of Homeland Security of operating what they described as a covert campaign of unlawful detentions, alleging that agents have been “abducting and disappearing” people without proper legal grounds, then detaining them in inhumane conditions and denying access to legal counsel.
Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers, said, “This ruling affirms what we already knew: you can’t just snatch people up for being brown and working hard. Not in the fields, not in a Home Depot parking lot, and not on our watch. Farm workers are on the frontline of the second Trump administration’s attack on immigrants. That’s why the farm workers’ union will do whatever it takes to defend farm workers and the entire immigrant working class.”
According to the lawsuit, those detained in downtown Los Angeles facilities have reported severe mistreatment, including being denied water, forced to drink from toilets, sleeping on bare concrete floors, and being served only chips and cookies as meals. Detainees were also allegedly pressured into signing voluntary deportation papers without legal representation or knowledge of their rights.
The court order covers the Central District of California, encompassing Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties. The case was brought by five individual residents and four advocacy organizations: The Los Angeles Worker Center Network, United Farm Workers, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), and Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef).
