The Trump administration has turned to the U.S. Supreme Court in an urgent bid to overturn a lower court’s order that sharply restricted federal immigration raids across much of Southern California.
At the heart of the legal battle is a ruling that bars federal agents from stopping or detaining individuals based solely on their race, ethnicity, or the language they speak. The order, issued by U.S. District Judge Maame Frimpong, also forbids targeting people merely because they are present at certain locations — from car washes to tow yards — or employed in specific types of work.
The Justice Department’s filing warns that the injunction hampers enforcement “across a region larger and more populous than many countries,” one it calls a major front in what the administration describes as an immigration crisis.
Trump, who reclaimed the White House on promises of record deportations, has overseen large-scale raids that have fueled fear in immigrant communities, drawn mass protests, and triggered lawsuits over aggressive, masked, and heavily armed enforcement tactics. In June, he even ordered National Guard troops and U.S. Marines into Los Angeles to quell demonstrations — a deployment that state officials blasted as unnecessary and inflammatory.
The current lawsuit stems from claims by Latino residents — including U.S. citizens — who say they were unlawfully targeted and mistreated during the raids. One man alleged agents assaulted him after dismissing his insistence that he was a citizen, even pressing him to name the hospital where he was born. Plaintiffs argue the operations amount to unconstitutional, “indiscriminate” dragnets that violate the Fourth Amendment’s shield against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Judge Frimpong’s decision to halt such practices was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month. Civil rights groups, including the ACLU, have hailed the ruling as nothing more than requiring the government to obey the Constitution — and say they are ready to defend it before the nation’s highest court.
