Since early June 2025, the Trump administration has escalated its attacks against southern California immigrant communities with targeted ICE raids across the region (in neighborhoods, worksites, etc.), resulting in the en masse abductions and detention of immigrants in the community.
This is an appeal of temporary restraining orders (TROs) entered by the district court temporarily blocking immigration agents from arresting people without reasonable suspicion that they're in the country illegally and otherwise requiring ICE agents to provide individuals they arrest immediate access to lawyers pending issuance of a preliminary injunction order.
On July 14, the same day the appeal was docketed, the government moved for a stay (pause) of the TROs while the appeal proceeds and an immediate administrative stay while the court considers the motion for a longer stay. On August 1, the Ninth Circuit denied the government’s stay request except as to one clause in the district court’s TROs.
On October 21, 2025, pursuant to Plaintiffs’ request at the district court below, the Ninth Circuit remanded the appeal in part to allow the district court to dissolve the Fourth Amendment TRO. The Ninth Circuit held the Fifth Amendment portion of this appeal in abeyance pending the district court’s decision on the pending PI motion, and ordered Plaintiffs to file a status report either within seven days of a ruling by the district court on the PI or thirty days from October 21, 2025, whichever comes first.
Technical Summary
In the district court case, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants have violated the Fourth (unreasonable seizures) and Fifth Amendments (with respect to access to counsel, conditions of confinement, and due process) of the U.S. Constitution as applied to the applicable Plaintiffs and those in the applicable purported classes. Plaintiffs also allege Defendants have violated several federal statutes and regulations: 8 U.S.C. § 1357(a)(2) (warrantless arrests without probable cause of flight risk), 8 C.F.R. § 287.8(c)(2)(ii) (governing standards for stops and warrantless arrests), (c)(2)(iii) (failure to identify authority and reason for arrest), 8 U.S.C. § 1362 (access to counsel).
Plaintiffs seek preliminary and permanent injunctive relief and declaratory relief for themselves and the purported classes. Plaintiffs also seek to represent three classes of individuals who have been or will be subjected to several of the unlawful practices this lawsuit challenges: 1) suspicionless stops; 2) warrantless arrests without evaluations of flight risk; and 3) the failure to identify authority and the reason for arrest.
Latest Updates
- 07/14/2025Appeal docketed
