Judge beefs up block on race-based ICE stops in LA

U.S. District Judge Maame Frimpong tentatively granted a preliminary injunction sought by the ACLU of Southern California, United Farm Workers and others to stop ICE agents from stopping people in LA County based solely on race. The move follows the Supreme Court's decision a year ago to pause her original temporary restraining order after Justice Kavanaugh suggested plaintiffs lacked standing to show they faced future harm.

Since then, plaintiffs' attorneys say they've gathered depositions of immigration agents and officials plus body camera footage supporting claims that agents target people who appear Latino and working-class regardless of individualized suspicion. A DOJ attorney argued the record still doesn't show plaintiffs face imminent harm, but Frimpong pointed out the Supreme Court may simply have paused the order for lack of evidence the first time around, evidence now supplied.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs described so-called targeted operations as often pretextual, with agents stopping anyone who looks Latino and later citing mistaken identity when the person doesn't match who they were looking for. Frimpong did not issue a final ruling at Thursday's hearing.

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