A federal judge in California has banned Border Patrol agents from arresting people suspected of illegally living in the United States unless they have reason to believe that the person might run away before a warrant is obtained.
US District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston on Tuesday also says that Border Patrol agents cannot stop people without reasonable doubt, or that they cannot return them to their country of origin through a “voluntary departure” unless the person has been informed of their rights and agrees to leave.
The ruling applies only to people within the Eastern District of California, and Thurston said dozens of people were swept in January after the Border Patrol launched an immigration enforcement lawsuit called “Operation Return to Senders.”
The American Civil Liberties Union sued Christa Noem and U.S. Border Patrol officials on behalf of the Union Farm Workers and those targeted during the Border Patrol attack.
The ACLU said Border Patrol agents spent nearly a week detaining people who “seems to be farm workers or daytime workers” “regardless of actual or individual circumstances of the immigration. The detainee was on a bus at the border, detained without a way to contact his family or lawyer, forced to sign documents saying he had waived his right to meet an immigrant judge and voluntarily agreed to leave the country, the ACLU said.
“The evidence before the court is that Border Patrol agents based on DHS authorities engaged in conduct that violated established constitutional rights,” Thurston wrote. She said the Border Patrol must provide a report every 60 days until the lawsuit ends, indicating exactly who was detained or arrested without a warrant.
Federal law states that immigration issues can only be appealed to the public if an immigration judge issues have issued a final order, so Border Patrol lawyers have argued that they lack jurisdiction to consider trials. Moreover, government lawyers said the case is a litigation as the U.S. Border Patrol could already be suspended or arrested without a warrant, and that new guidance and training have already been issued to agents detailing the rights detainees have after their arrest.
However, Thurston said that just because the Border Patrol issued new policies after the lawsuit was sued, it cannot argue that the lawsuit is controversial. The language of the new policy is not strong enough to prevent illegal suspensions, Thurston said, and there is no reason to believe that policies will not change again in the future.
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