A vehicle with the message "ICE, ICE Baby!" written in the dust on the rear windscreen stands near U.S. federal agents blocking a road leading to an agricultural facility where U.S. federal agents and immigration officers carried out an operation, in Camarillo, California, U.S., July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Daniel Cole TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
A federal judge on Friday night paused the Trump administration from making indiscriminate stops and arrests in southern California.
Immigrant advocacy groups sued last week, accusing the Trump administration of systematically targeting people with brown skin in its ongoing crackdown.
The judge also blocked the administration from preventing detainees from consulting a lawyer.
In doing so, the judge granted two temporary restraining orders. A hearing is expected in the coming weeks, but The New York Times noted that the initial rulings "represent a sharp rebuke" of tacticsdeployed by federal agents in the Los Angeles area.
“What the federal government would have this Court believe — in the face of a mountain of evidence presented in this case — is that none of this is actually happening,” Judge Maame E. Frimpong wrote in the ruling, according to The Times.
She said “roving patrols” without reasonable suspicion violated the Fourth Amendment. Preventing migrants from speaking to lawyers violated the Fifth Amendment, she said.
The ruling will likely be appealed, noted FoxLA anchor Elix Michaelson.