Public Counsel and a coalition of law firms and advocacy groups achieved a major legal victory Friday night when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decisively denied the federal government’s attempt to pause critical protections we secured through a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) last month. This ruling affirms critical safeguards against unconstitutional immigration raids and stop-and-arrest practices conducted by the Trump administration in Los Angeles.

The Court upheld our TRO, affirming the district court’s finding that the Trump administration’s immigration raids in Los Angeles have likely violated the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable seizures. In its ruling, the Ninth Circuit explicitly rejected the government’s arguments that immigration officers could lawfully target community members based solely on race, ethnicity, language, location, or occupation. 

This legal victory represents another milestone in our landmark class action lawsuit, filed in early July, to challenge the federal government’s unconstitutional stop-and-arrest practices and the denial of due process rights to community members held at B-18, a holding site in the basement of the federal building in downtown Los Angeles, where many have been held in cruel and coercive conditions without adequate food, hygiene, or even beds. The government did not challenge a second TRO that requires access to legal counsel for individuals detained at B-18.

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). Public Counsel is joined by our pro bono co-counsel Hecker Fink LLP, the ACLU of Northern and Southern California, CHIRLA, ImmDef, UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant and Racial Justice Solidarity Clinic, and other immigration and civil rights groups and attorneys.

We are prepared for a sustained fight to uphold the rule of law and to protect the justice, dignity, and constitutional rights of all Angelenos. We deeply appreciate the support and solidarity from our community and partners in this critical effort.

• Read the order here.
• Read our press release here.
• For more on Vasquez-Perdomo v. Noem, click here.

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