A federal judge issued a stern spanking to the Trump administration on Tuesday, telling it to cut out warrantless arrests in the nation’s capital unless there is clear evidence the migrant is about to flee.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee, also chided the government for labeling illegal immigrants as “alien criminals.” She said being in the country illegally is not, in and of itself, a crime, but rather a civil violation.
“Consequently, viewing all immigrants potentially subject to removal as criminals is, as a legal matter, plain wrong,” she wrote in an 88-page opinion.
She issued a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from making warrantless immigration arrests unless they believe escape is likely.
Judge Howell said arrests for actual criminal violations, and civil arrests made with an administrative warrant, are not affected by her ruling.
But it does stand as an impediment to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has vastly expanded the aperture of migrants it is trying to arrest and detain.
The Washington Times has sought comment from the Homeland Security Department.
Judge Howell is the second judge in as many weeks to rule against warrantless immigration arrests.
District Judge R. Brooke Jackson, an Obama appointee in Colorado, issued a similar decision on Nov. 25.
Judge Howell said immigration arrests in the District of Columbia soared after President Trump ordered his law-and-order crackdown this summer.
And among those arrests were many made without a warrant.
Homeland Security had previously said it used “reasonable suspicion” to make the arrests. Judge Howell said that’s not the standard, though. She said the law requires “probable cause.”
She also rejected the administration’s argument that it doesn’t have a policy of warrantless arrests, saying the number of examples makes clear there’s at least a “practice.”
